Israeli military dubs settler clash 'intolerable'

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Burned car in Hawara village, 14.04.2010

Cars were burned and a mosque vandalised in the area last week

Israel's military has dubbed as "intolerable" what it described as a "riot" by settlers in the West Bank.

The military said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried to stop the settlers entering a Palestinian village.

One soldier was injured in the face by a thrown bottle.

Residents of the settlement of Yitzhar were quoted by Israeli media as saying the soldiers harrassed them as they tried to visit the area.

Israeli citizens from the area of Yitzhar tried to enter the nearby village of Madma in the northern West Bank on Tuesday evening, the military said in a statement.

Soldiers tried to set up a military zone, but more settlers arrived and pelted them with rocks, it said.

"Violence and raising hands up against IDF soldiers is crossing the line in an intolerable manner," the statement said.

The incident occurred on Israel's independence day, which the military said made it "all the more serious".

Settlers quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the military had been trying to prevent them from hiking in the area all day, and that a soldier had fired in the air during the confrontation - a charge the military denied.

'Spate of attacks'

Last week a mosque was vandalised with Jewish grafitti, cars were burned and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawarra, also near Yitzhar settlement.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned what he described as a recent spate of attacks on Palestinian property by settlers.

He said Israeli state policy had given rise to "a culture of violence, hatred and extremism in which Israeli settlers, often accompanied by Israeli soldiers, run riot across the West Bank".

Israeli rights groups say the military often does not do enough to prevent attacks on Palestinians and their property...

read on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8634754.stm

[Crunchy Frog]

1. They should be handled EXACTLY the way Palestinians would be handled

under the same circumstances. They won't be though. Israel has created a monster that it can't control.

[azurnoir]

2. Oh such nice words but exactly what is IDF doing?

so the settlers are throwing rocks at IDF, does IDF respond with rubber bullets, tear gas, dogs, or the occasional live round as they do routinely to Palestinians?

Perhaps the settlers have special soft rocks they hurl at IDF