RAMALLAH – Extremist Jewish settlers early Monday carried a “price tag” attack near the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. The Palestinian sources said that settlers from the nearby Jewish settlement of Tapauch arrived at the village of Yasouf to the south of Nablus, early Monday and punctured the tires of three vehicles. The sources said that the vehicles are owned by Nasser Abdullah, Mufid Muslih and Nash'at Abdulfattah. The sources added that the words “price tag” were spray-painted at the site. In a 2009 price tag attack a mosque was sent on fire in the same village. Israeli police opened an investigation into the incident. No arrests were reported. The Israeli army said that it views seriously acts of this nature. “Price tag” is the slogan adopted some months ago by extremist Jewish occupiers who carry out reprisals against Palestinians and their properties in response to the evacuation of settlement structures by Israeli forces. Last week, the Israeli forces demolished six homes in the settlement outpost of Ma'ale Rehavam, northeast of Hebron in the West Bank. The development comes a day after the Palestinian Authority dispatched two negotiators to Washington to brief US Administration on its stance regarding peace talks with Israel. The decision to send the two officials to Washington comes on the eve of US President Barack Obama's planned visit to the region next month. It also comes after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dispatched his envoy on the Palestinian issue, Yitzhak Molcho, to Washington last week to discuss the issue. Palestinian sources said that Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Ishtayyeh will reiterate the PA's demand for a full freeze of settlement construction and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as a prerequisite for resuming the peace talks. The sources said that the two negotiators will also demand that the negotiations with Israel be based on clear terms of reference, including previous UN resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict. According to the officials, Erekat and Ishtayyeh will also demand that future negotiations with Israel be resumed from the point where they were halted during the term of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas revealed in a meeting last year with leftist Israeli politicians that Israel and the Palestinians came closer than had previously been thought to reaching an agreement in 2008 when Olmert was Israel's prime minister. Abbas said that he and Olmert had finalized an agreement on security issues which was approved by the former US President George Bush administration, Olmert himself, and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He said the document remains in the possession of the US National Security Council. On borders, Abbas said that he had a difference of opinion with Olmert about whether a proposed land swap would comprise 6.5 percent of the West Bank territory as Olmert wanted, or 1.9 percent which he had offered. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, there are more than 800,000 Jewish settlers who live with some 3.5 million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the two areas as part of their independent state. Tension has been always on between the two sides that usually turn into violence. The US administration has been sponsoring the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. However, the Israeli-Palestinian direct peace talks were suspended on September 2010 after Israel refused to freeze settlement construction.
