INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: HEBRON, West Bank: Jewish settlers on Thursday spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
Israeli security forces quickly removed the graffiti and were cleaning the cemetery, the army said.
The mosque stands next to a building that has become a flashpoint for tensions between settlers and Palestinians. Settlers say they bought the building from a Palestinian, but the Palestinian denies the claim.
Settlers inside the building have ignored an order from Israel's Supreme Court to leave while the ownership dispute is settled. Israel's defense minister has pledged to evict them within 30 days if they don't leave voluntarily.
Hebron is divided into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled sections. About 500 settlers live in guarded enclaves in the city's center among 170,000 Palestinians. >>> AP | November 20, 2008
TIMESONLINE: Jewish Settlers Daub 'Muhammad is a pig' on Palestinian Mosque
An escalating stand-off between the Israeli Army and a group of extremist Jewish settlers encamped illegally in a Palestinian town took a sinister turn today after radicals desecrated a Muslim cemetery and mosque and attacked soldiers.
Israel's military, which is trying to force the settlers to leave the property in Hebron, said it had removed the graffiti "Muhammad is a pig" from a local mosque and had cleared the cemetery, in which gravestones were sprayed by radicals with Stars of David.
The wave of vandalism is part of a campaign of violence and disorder by nine settler families, who make up some of the most extreme hard-right-wingers in Israel.
They have promised to use force against local Palestinian residents and soldiers trying to enforce an Israeli court order demanding their departure from a house they have occupied in the town, which is densely populated by Palestinians.
The settlers believe they have a biblical right to settle anywhere in the West Bank, and bitterly oppose Israel's negotiations to give up large swaths of the occupied territory in exchange for a Palestinian state and a permanent peace settlement. Currently, about 500 settlers live in guarded enclaves in Hebron's city centre among 170,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli Army stepped back from its original plan to forcibly evacuate the settlers yesterday, fearing extreme violence. Instead, Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, has pledged to force their removal within 30 days.
Amid a wave of vandalism perpetrated by settlers yesterday in the aftermath of the court decision, a group of men was seen gathering near a mosque, daubing abusive graffiti on it.
Mouatassem Daana, a Palestinian resident, said that he saw settlers gathered near the mosque building “writing demeaning graffiti on the wall of the mosque insulting the Prophet Muhammad” and breaking windows. Later, the cemetery was also vandalised. >>> David Byers | November 20, 2008
BBC: Security Increase in Tense Hebron
Israel has increased security in the West Bank city of Hebron ahead of a Jewish pilgrimage there.
This comes at a time of increased tension in Hebron, where hundreds of Jewish settlers live in the heart of the Palestinian city.
A number of them are currently defying an Israeli high court order to leave a building in the centre of the Palestinian city.
On Wednesday, a mosque and Muslim cemetery were defaced by settlers.
Israeli troops later painted over the offensive graffiti. A soldier was injured in scuffles with settlers, the army said. >>> | November 21, 2008
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