Israel cuts aid to outposts amid rising settler violence

Israel on Sunday decided to cut off all funding for illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in response to an escalation of settler attacks on its security forces. The decision would apply to the more than 100 wildcat outposts considered illegal under Israeli law, but not to the more than 120 official settlements. The international community considers all West Bank settlements to be illegal. The decision was taken after settlers and Israeli security forces clashed for the fourth time in less than two weeks, an escalation in violence that outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called an "intolerable situation." "There is a not insignificant group of outlaws that are behaving in a manner that is threatening the rule of law," Olmert said ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting. "This is an intolerable situation that we refuse to accept." The decision came after teenage settlers hurled rocks at border police near the West Bank town of Hebron on Saturday, lightly injuring two of them. Defence Minister Ehud Barak also condemned the violence, calling it a "grave phenomenon that no viable society should tolerate." A representative from the local settler council said police themselves had sparked the latest fighting by beating a 10-year-old settler child. "The child wanted to cross a roadblock... Those who strike our children have to know that we won't turn the other cheek," Itamar Ben Gvir said. Border police spokesman Moshe Pinchi said he had no knowledge of the alleged beating and accused the settlers of "cynically" sending minors to attack the police. On Friday some 100 settlers clashed with police who removed an illegal structure erected by the settlers on an illegal outpost near Hebron. Several days earlier settlers had rampaged through a Palestinian neighbourhood after police removed another outpost, slashing car tyres, throwing rocks at homes and desecrating Muslim graves. Hardline settlers say they have adopted a "price tag" policy of attacking Palestinians or security forces every time an outpost is demolished. Dov Lior, the head rabbi of the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba, compared Israeli security forces to "the Nazis in Poland" during World War II. "The Nazis also woke people up in the middle of the night and deported them. At that time also we were driven from our homes for no reason other than that we were Jewish," he said. The government referred directly to the rabbi's remarks in its decision to sever funding to the outposts, saying it would "examine whether state employees are involved in incitement and bring them to justice." About 100 wildcat outposts dot the West Bank, some consisting of just a few trailers and others of several mobile homes connected to the power grid. They are usually built as extensions to officially established settlements. More than 260,000 Israelis live in government-authorised settlements across the West Bank, with another 200,000 in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel seized and annexed in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers all West Bank settlements to be illegal, and the Palestinians have said the issue is the main obstacle confronting US-backed peace talks relaunched nearly a year ago. The head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency, meanwhile, told the cabinet he is "extremely worried" that right-wing extremists may attempt to carry out assassinations ahead of general elections in February. Yuval Diskin, the head of Shin Beth, expressed his fears days before the 13th anniversary of the killing of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist, and as Israeli prepares for early elections in February. "As we mark the anniversary of Rabin's assassination the Shin Beth has identified among this extreme rightwing group... a willingness to use firearms in order to stop political processes and target political leaders," he said. On November 10 Israelis will mourn Rabin, who was gunned down at a Tel Aviv peace rally in 1995 by Yigal Amir, who hoped to derail peace talks with the Palestinians.