Israeli police clash with anti-settlement activists, 3 arrested

By Abdelraouf Arna'out

JERUSALEM (AA) - Clashes erupted between Israeli police and activists on Saturday ahead of a planned march to a controversial settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank.

Police blocked protesters from continuing to the outpost, describing the protest as illegal, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.

Three activists from the anti-settlement Peace Now group were arrested.

Protesters were escorted with two bulldozers intended to destroy the Homesh outpost, a symbolic site for the settlement movement that government leaders have vowed to dismantle in accordance with the law.

In a statement, the Peace Now movement vowed to continue peaceful rallies against Israeli settlement building.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate there are about 650,000 settlers living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied Jerusalem.

International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara