Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH — Jewish settlers on early Monday set a Palestinian taxi on Fire near the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. The Palestinian sources said that the settlers torched the car of Ahmed Abu Sondos and spray painted anti-Palestinian slogans in the town of Dhahriyeh to the south of Hebron. The car was lightly damaged. The sources said that the graffiti reading “price tag Susia” and “revenge against the Arabs” were found on a nearby house fence. Susia is a Jewish settlement which was established on 1983 and home to some 800 settlers. Another read, “Regards from Ettinger,” a reference extremist Jewish activist Meir Ettinger, who is currently in prison and facing legal proceeding for his attacks on Palestinians. Israeli police suspected the attack is a “price tag” act, a slogan adopted by extremist Jewish occupiers who carry out reprisals against Palestinians and their properties in response to the evacuation of settlement structures by Israeli forces. The Israeli Army Radio said that police and army forces arrived at the town and opened an investigation into the attack. The report said that he soldiers searched the area but failed to find the perpetrators. The development came hours before a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Elders group. The Palestinian official news agency Wafa said that Abbas will meet former United States President Jimmy Carter, Norway prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and ex-president of Ireland Mary Robinson at the Presidential compound of Al-Muqata'a in Ramallah. The three belong to the Elders. The group announced Thursday that the three members will visit the West Bank and Israel “to raise concerns about the future of the imperiled two-state solution, particularly in light of settlement expansion.” It added that they will visit Egypt on 23-25 October “to encourage the country's inclusive and democratic political transition and will hold meetings with officials, young people, civil society and media.” In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there are more than 500,000 Jewish occupiers who live with 2.5 million Palestinians. Tension has been always on between the two sides that usually turn into violence. The issue of settlements is one of the thorniest issues that stall the resumption of direct peace talks between Palestinian Authority and Israel which collapsed in October 2010 because Israel insisted to continue settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas asked the UN on September for the recognition of Palestine as a non-member state due to the stalemate in the peace process. The Palestinian President told representatives of the European Union early this month that the Palestinian leadership is prepared to resume peace talks with Israel after obtaining membership in the UN General Assembly. The Palestinians insist not to resume any direct or indirect peace talks with Israel before the latter clearly declares a complete cessation of settlement activities in the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem that Palestinians want the capital of their future state.
