Armed men stopping cars at checkpoints in the West Bank are usually Israeli security forces policing the territory, but in some areas they are Palestinian civilians patrolling their own villages.
The director and co-founder of the Israel Land Fund (ILF), a right-wing, Israel-based pro-settler group, told a small crowd of hawkish Israel supporters that “Arabs are eating the sovereignty of Israelis in our capital” during a local event on June 6.
The U.S. State Department and the Anti-Defamation League condemned a firebomb attack on Palestinians believed to have been carried out by settlers.
The U.S. State Department\’s annual report on terrorism said Hamas and Hezbollah continued to destabilize the Middle East, described Israel as a \”resolute\” partner in counterterrorism and listed as \”terrorist incidents\” extremist settler attacks on Palestinians.
Jewish settlers who moved into an Arab home near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron have 24 hours to leave, the Israeli army said.
Israel is not doing enough to stop the large increase in attacks on Palestinians by Jewish extremists, according to an internal European Union report.
Three Israeli soldiers were arrested on Tuesday for suspected involvement in pro-settler vandalism and arson, the military said, following a series of attacks in the West Bank that have exacerbated tensions with Palestinians.
Israel said on Thursday it had arrested five Palestinians in the West Bank in connection with the stoning of a vehicle that overturned, killing a Jewish settler and his baby late last month.
Had Ariel Sharon been able to continue as Israeli prime minister, his main strategic goal would have been establishing a new long-term border between Israel and the West Bank. That remains the primary aim of his Kadima Party, but last week\’s violent clashes between settlers and police at the tiny West Bank outpost of Amona show just how difficult achieving it might be.
Migron, the largest and most established of the 100 or so illegal Jewish outposts set up across the West Bank, is on the front lines of a looming showdown between the settler movement and the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently pledged to dismantle such settlements in accordance with the U.S.-led \”road map\” peace plan.
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