Photo of Palestinian men protecting Israeli policewoman goes viral

A picture of two Palestinian men shielding an Israeli policewoman from rocks being thrown by Israeli settlers has gone viral.

The photo - taken by Shaul Golan, a photographer for Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper - showed the three standing at Esh Kodesh, an outpost on the West Bank, considered by the United Nations to be part of the occupied territory.

In the image, the female police officer is seen without protective gear, looking frightened, while standing inbetween the two men.

The two Palestinian men stepped in to protect the frightened policewoman after clashes broke out between anti-occupation activists and what Isreali media have described as right-wing settlers. The incident – which saw the two sides throwing rocks at each other - happened near the settlement of Aish Kodesh and the Palestinian village of Kusra.

The striking picture was shared at least 2,305 times on the Facebook page of an Israeli journalist named Igal Sarna.

“Amid all the chaos, I saw this female officer,” Golan told the Times of Israel. “She was really scared. She was abandoned in the field and her so-called enemies were guarding her. I knew right away it was a special moment.”

One of the men sheltering the Israeli officer was Zakaria Sadah, a Palestinian field worker for Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), an Israeli human rights organization that works in the area.

“When I saw her,” Sadah said in a phone interview with the Times of Israel, “I didn’t see her uniform or a symbol of the occupation. I saw a person who was crying, who was breaking down. And I had to stand by her side.”