Settlers observe 'Day Of Rage' pouring wrath on Palestinians

IPS News - Israeli settlers observed their own 'Day of Rage' last Thursday, launching reprisal attacks on Palestinians for the recent murder of a settler family in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and the demolition of a settlement structure by the Israeli authorities.

Over the years, Israeli settlers have carried out the much publicised "price tag" policy of intimidation and violence against Palestinians and their property every time Israeli officials have demolished a settler outpost.

The outposts, mostly comprising a few caravans often unconnected to water and electricity, are deemed illegal by the Israeli authorities unlike the larger settlements.

A settler family comprising a mother, father and three children, including a three-month-old baby, were stabbed to death in Itamar, a settlement near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Suspecting the killer or killers to be Palestinian, without any evidence and despite rumours that Thai labourers involved in a pay dispute with their employers in Itamar could have been responsible, settlers attacked Palestinians and their property throughout the West Bank as their day of rage extended over the week.

This followed days of rage carried out by pro-democracy protestors against authoritarian governments throughout the Arab world including Palestine.

"The government must understand that it doesn't pay to destroy our homes and we are going to make them regret what happened here," said Rabbi Meir Goldmintz, who teaches at West Bank seminary.

"We are going to pay them (Palestinians) a visit to do what the Israeli government should be doing to them and not to us," he said pointing at nearby Palestinian villages.

On Thursday, true to their word major traffic intersections near Nablus were blocked by settlers burning tyres as cars and pedestrians were attacked with stones and Molotov cocktails...
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