West Bank settlers clash with officials over construction freeze

Dec 2, 2009, 10:00 GMT

Jerusalem - Violent confrontations broke out in the West Bank Wednesday, as Israeli settlers opposed to a 10-month construction halt in settlements, tried to prevent Defence Ministry officials from enforcing the freeze.

A spokesman for the settlers said two protestors were arrested in the northern West Bank as settlers prevented the inspectors from entering four settlements.

Police also detained the head of a settlement regional council in the West Bank, after he blocked their entry into his settlement.

Some 60 settlers from another settlement near Nablus began a march to the Palestinian city but staged a sit-in to block the path of the inspectors.

Similar protests were held in the West Bank Tuesday, with settlers blocking roads and in one location - Kiryat Arba near Hebron - forced the inspectors to beat a retreat.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the 10-month freeze on construction a week ago, in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected the freeze as insufficient. He has demanded a total halt to all Israeli construction in the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem as a condition for resuming peace talks. Israel-Palestinian Peace talks were suspended a year ago as Israel began an election campaign.

Netanyahu said Tuesday night that the freeze was a one-time, temporary move, but settlers have vowed to fight it and to ignore injunctions to halt construction in their settlements.

Religious-nationalist Jews, who make up the majority of Israeli settlers, view the West Bank as part of the Biblical Jewish homeland and oppose handing the territory over the non-Jewish rule.