Israeli police arrest settler leader in WB

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS:
Israeli police arrested the mayor of a West Bank Jewish settlement on Wednesday after protesters blocked security forces from entering the community to enforce a construction freeze. The showdown was the most serious incident of settler unrest since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced the 10-month building freeze, which bars the construction of new homes in West Bank settlements. Settler leaders have vowed to defy the order, which Netanyahu says is meant as a confidence-building gesture to get peace efforts with the Palestinians back on track. Confronting the settlers could help Netanyahu convince sceptical Palestinians and a wary Obama administration that he’s serious about resuming talks. The Palestinians are refusing to talk peace with Netanyahu and say his settlement freeze is a sham because it excludes certain projects as well as east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city they claim as a capital. An Israeli advocacy group on Wednesday released a report showing a sharp rise in the number of east Jerusalem Arabs who were stripped of their residency in 2008. HaMoked said Israel’s Interior Ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 east Jerusalemites in 2008 - more than 20 times the annual average of the previous 40 years. It cited official statistics obtained under a freedom of information request. The Interior Ministry refused to confirm the statistics, but said that individuals must prove they spend most of their time in the city to maintain their residency. “At the beginning of 2009, the immigration authority decided to conduct a thorough check of permanent residents in Israel whose centre of life is not in Israel,’’ the statement read.

Source: thenews.jang.com.pk