Italy’s L’Espresso cover 'L'Abuso' on West Bank settlers draws Israel’s ire

Italian weekly magazine L'Espresso has sparked a diplomatic tension with Israel following its publication of the April 10, 2024, issue titled "L'Abuso" or "The Abuse". The publication depicts a cover image with an armed settler filming a distressed Palestinian woman during a raid in the West Bank. In its editorial note, L’Espresso contrasted the “settler's grin” with the “pained Arab girl”, framing the scene as a reflection of the human cost of the ongoing tensions.

The image describes the predatory nature of the Israeli settlers' “daily abuses” in the West Bank. L'Espresso re-released the cover for its April 9 issue to anchor a new and broader investigation into the “Greater Israel” project. This issue coincided with the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s April 9, 2026, plan for the “Greater Israel” expansion.

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"The annexation of the West Bank, with soldiers complicit in the settlers' actions. Gaza annihilated. The advance into Lebanon. The border was violated in Syria. The war on Iran. Ethnic cleansing and massacres. Thus, the Zionist right gives shape to Greater Israel," read the blurb from L'Espresso.

Israeli ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, condemned the cover, labelling it "hate speech," a "manipulative distortion of reality," and an oversimplification that contributes to harmful stereotypes and antisemitic tropes against “Israeli”.

L'Espresso's post has triggered mixed reactions with supporters defending the depiction as a crude reality of the settler violence in the West Bank, while others argue that the picture does not provide the context and "unfairly portrays" Israel amid ongoing war and security threats in the region.