West Bank – Dozens of Jewish settlers broke into an army base in the West Bank early Tuesday and lit fires, damaged vehicles and threw stones at a senior officer, just hours after another group took over an abandoned building in a closed military zone on the border with Jordan.
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The incidents were an ominous sign of the growing audacity of Jewish extremists, who increasingly have been venting their anger against the very troops assigned to guard them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the base attack and ordered security forces to “act aggressively against those harming Israeli soldiers and their commanders,” according to a statement from his office.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak called both incidents “homegrown terror” and said they “threaten to damage the delicate relations Israel has with its neighbors.”
In the base attack, about 50 settlers vandalized army vehicles with paint and nails and threw stones at the district commander, who was not seriously hurt, the military said in a statement. Troops dispersed the rioters and two people were in custody, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The Israeli news site Ynet said the settlers were protesting the planned evacuations of unauthorized settlement outposts. In recent years, some Israeli settlers have vandalized military or Palestinian property to protest Israeli government action against settlements, a tactic they term “price tag.”
“We are on the verge of civil war,” parliamentary opposition leader Tzipi Livni warned in an interview with Israel Radio.
Some 300,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, among some 2.5 million Palestinians. An additional 200,000 live in east Jerusalem.
Israel captured both territories from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed east Jerusalem shortly thereafter, in a move that is not recognized internationally. Palestinians view the lands as the core of a future state that would also include the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, a different group of radical settlers cut a fence to enter a closed military zone along the border with Jordan on Monday night, security officials said. They took over an abandoned church near Jesus’ traditional baptismal site on the Jordan River before Israeli security forces removed them and arrested all 17 people involved, officials said.
The protesters told police that they were protesting the Jerusalem municipality’s shutdown of a pedestrian walkway leading to a disputed Old City holy site, Rosenfeld added.
The wooden walkway, which leads up to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been declared unsafe by municipal officials in Jerusalem and was closed on Sunday. The ramp is the only access point for Jews, meaning that Jews cannot currently access the compound, revered as the site of two biblical temples.
Jordanian officials said the Israelis did not cross the border into Jordan.
Settler leaders condemned both incidents. Dani Dayan, who heads a settler umbrella group, said those responsible “must turn themselves in and if not, they must be arrested and tried.”
In other news, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel over the reported expansion of the West Bank settlement of Efrat. The settlement’s mayor told The Associated Press on Monday that the government gave the go-ahead to replace a trailer camp with 40 permanent homes there. The Palestinians have also condemned the move.
In a statement Monday, Ban called on Israel to freeze all settlement construction, saying it was “contrary to international law” and harmful to attempts to achieve a negotiated peace agreement.
well how do you expect people to react when their own government keeps on appeasing the enemies and at the same time keep demolishing Jewish homes that are being built on their own land ?
“Some 300,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, among some 2.5 million Palestinians. An additional 200,000 live in east Jerusalem.” “A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads. Settlers are sometimes termed “colonists” or “colonials” and—in the United States.” from wikipedia
Continue to threaten to uproot more Jewish homes in Eretz Yisroel and then wonder when the homeowners go wild.
We must treat these extremist, like a palestinian extremist. there is no difference between them two. these fanatics think its their god given right to do anything they want just because they are israeli. thankfully we have a true leader like netanyahu who is making sure to put them in their place.
Sounds like typical NK behavior, so where is the outrage & condemnation???
Usually when the NK engages in this type of wild stuff, they are then vilified and cursed upon by dozens of posters, and the worst form of hatred is spewed, by most posters.
Where is the outrage now???
Also when is this behavior called a riot & when is it only a rampage ???
All the armchair generals….when u love the land as much as the settlors do, and realize that the only way we establish presence on the land is by living there, than these settlers are the same as those as efrat and elsewhere, they’re just on the front lines…thank them. And if I remember correctly, terrorists were just released to the jungle of gaza, well I guess our terrorists should be let free as well!