Settlers target W. Bank mosque - officials

* Cars torched, olive trees damaged in latest attacks

* Israeli police set up task force to hunt vandals

YATMA, West Bank, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Israeli settlers sprayed graffiti on a mosque and torched Palestinian cars in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, angered by Israel's demolition of structures at an unauthorised outpost, Palestinian officials said.

"We condemn these attacks and also the Israeli government for allowing this to happen," Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, urging the international community "to provide our people with protection".

The name of the settler-outpost, Migron, where security forces tore down three structures on Monday, was painted on an exterior wall of the mosque in the village of Yatma, along with the Hebrew acronym for the words "Price Tag".

Palestinian officials said two cars were set ablaze in a nearby village and several olive trees uprooted.

Some settlers and their supporters have used the "Price Tag" slogan to signify payback for any Israeli curbs on settlement in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.

Migron was built without Israeli government permission and a court ordered the demolitions, which were followed hours later by an arson attack on a mosque in the West Bank village of Qusra, an incident condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Wednesday, an Israeli army base in the West Bank was vandalised and pro-settler graffiti daubed on its walls, the first such incident at a military installation.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a special task force had been set up to investigate the attacks and apprehend suspects, although no arrests had yet been made.

The governer of the Palestinian city of Nablus near Yatma ordered formation of local vigilante groups in villages neighbouring settlements in the area to protect Palestinians and their property from more settler attacks.

Governor Gibril al-Bakry said his orders for the formation of "popular defence committees" followed "the serious escalation in settler attacks", the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

It was the first sign of an organised Palestinian response to the settler violence.

Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence against Palestinians and say assailants are rarely caught or prosecuted.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was also captured in the 1967 conflict. About 2.5 million Palestinians reside in the two areas.

Palestinians hope to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. T he Israeli government says a return to the pre-1967 frontier would leave Israel with an indefensible border.

The World Court and most foreign governments view settlements Israel has built in the areas as illegal.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/settlers-target-w-bank-mosque-officials

Israel Intensifies Training of Settler Security Teams

Israeli soldiers stood guard at a settlement Tuesday as a Jewish settler, also armed, passed by.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has stepped up training for more than 100 settler security teams in the West Bank in anticipation of Palestinian popular protests and possible mass disturbances accompanying any Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition in September, settler leaders said on Tuesday.

The military is drawing up boundaries around each settlement that protesters will not be allowed to cross and is carrying out simulated “scenarios” with the security teams, according to Shlomo Vaknin, the security officer of the Yesha Council, the settlers’ umbrella organization.

It was not clear how the boundaries would be made clear to protesters. Mr. Vaknin refused to go into detail about possible rules of engagement or to describe under what conditions settler response teams might open fire.

There are more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, only some of which are fenced. Each has its own rapid response team armed with military-issued M-16 automatic rifles. There are high levels of hostility — and past clashes — between some Palestinian villages and neighboring settlements and outposts dominated by Jews claiming territory they consider their biblical birthright. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/middleeast/31israel.html

Israel go-ahead for West Bank settler homes dents peace hopes

The Israeli government has authorised the construction of 277 homes in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, a move that will diminish the prospects for a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

An announcement from the defence ministry said approval for the scheme was given last week. The government also backed the building of 1,600 homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo. Further announcements are expected in the coming days.

Ariel, home to almost 20,000 Israelis, extends 12 miles (20km) inside the West Bank. Its future under any agreement on borders with the Palestinians is uncertain.

Israel is determined to annex such a large settlement, but the Palestinians and many in the international community argue that it would cut the West Bank nearly in two, making a contiguous Palestinian state almost impossible.

The housing units had been in the planning process for several years before being approved by the defence minister, Ehud Barak. One hundred homes will be reserved for settlers evacuated from Gaza in 2005; the remainder will be sold on the open market.

The Palestinian Authority said the approval "makes clear to the world Israel's contempt for a negotiated two-state solution". Israel, it said in a statement, was "racing against time to make the two-state solution harder and harder by building on the land that is supposed to be the Palestinian state. The international community must ask Israel how it can pretend to be ready to negotiate while expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank?"

Hagit Ofran of the Israeli organisation Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity, described the approval as a cynical move amid the current Israel-wide tent protests about the cost of renting and buying homes. "The government is taking advantage of the housing crisis in Israel to expand its settlement policy," she said. "Most Israelis are not settlers and don't want to be settlers, and construction in Ariel is not relevant to them."

A spokesman for the US embassy said unilateral actions by either side were "not helpful to the process to try to get both parties back to the table".

Israel appears to be stepping up approval of settlement construction before the Palestinians' bid for recognition of their state at the UN next month. The government is opposed to the Palestinians making a unilateral move, saying that only negotiations can bring about a Palestinian state within agreed borders.

Attempts by the US and EU to persuade the parties to resume talks have not been successful. The US wants the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank to be the basis of negotiations, with agreed land swaps to compensate for Jewish settlements Israel would retain.

The Palestinians have identified continued settlement expansion as the main obstacle to resuming direct talks, which broke down last September after Israel refused to extend a temporary freeze on settlement construction.

It emerged this week that Israel's president, Shimon Peres, held a series of secret meetings with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in recent weeks. The talks were brought to an abrupt end when Peres was forced to cancel a meeting at short notice reportedly after the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, refused to allow him room to negotiate.

Approximately 300,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. Another 200,000 live in settlements in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/15/israel-approves-west-bank-homes

West Bank settlers suspected of attacking Palestinian child

Ten year old boy allegedly attacked by masked assailants near Ramat Migron outpost; police apprehend 13 suspects so far.

A ten year old Palestinian child was seriously injured after being beaten in an apparent attack by settlers near the West Bank outpost of Ramat Migron.

The Israel Defense Forces received a report of the incident on Saturday afternoon. The boy, who was found suffering from head injuries and cuts to his head, was sent to Ramallah hospital by the Red Cross. He told security forces that his attackers were wearing masks.

Police and military forces that arrived at the scene opened an investigation and chased after the suspects. So far thirteen people suspected of involvement in the incident have been apprehended.

The police stated that they are treating the incident with the utmost seriousness in order to find the other assailants and bring them to justice.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/west-bank-settlers-suspected-of-attacking-palestinian-child-1.379682