West Bank settlers scuffle with Israeli police

BEIT ARIEH, Israel (WJC)–Israeli police reportedly arrested the mayor of a Jewish community in the West Bank after settlers blocked security from enforcing a construction freeze. Settler spokesman Yishai Hollender say police apprehended Avi Naim for disrupting a police officer in the line of duty. He said Naim and a group of settlers had blocked the entrance to their Beit Arieh settlement on Wednesday when troops arrived to hand out orders to cease construction at the site.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a ten-month moratorium of settlement construction in an effort to jump-start peace talks with the Palestinians. On Monday, Netanyahu said the moratorium was “one-time” and “temporary,” adding: “We will go back to building at the end of the freeze.”

West Bank settlers have rejected the plan and confronted army and police forces in recent days. Several mayors of the Likud Party said they would freeze their party membership as long as the Netanyahu government kept the freeze of new building projects.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress