Right-wingers conduct scroll reading at Goldstein's grave

By Nadav Shragai

About 100 right-wing activists conducted the traditional Purim reading of the Scroll of Esther yesterday at the graveside of Baruch Goldstein, on the outskirts of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank.

Goldstein, a doctor from Kiryat Arba, murdered 29 Palestinians during a Muslim prayer session at the Tomb of the Patriarchs on Purim in 1994.

"Arik is a traitor," the right-wingers - mostly former members of the Kach and Kahane Lives movements - shouted out occasionally in reference to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Rabin was also a traitor. The [hanging] tree is ready and waiting. Arik, you will follow in his footsteps."

Slogans in the same vein intensified each time the name of Haman was mentioned, with the head of the Disengagement Administration Yonatan Bassi also coming in for abuse at the mention of Haman and the names of his 10 sons who were hanged.

Many of the right-wingers were dressed up as soldiers who were refusing to obey orders to evacuate the settlements.

The area around Goldstein's grave was initially declared a closed military zone, but some 100 activists managed nevertheless to conduct the scroll reading at the site. The attempt to prevent access to the site was another sign of the restrictions on freedom of expression and Sharon's dictatorship, charged right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Peace Now has asked the attorney general to conduct a probe into suspected incitement.

Yitzhar settlers clash with troops

By Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents

Residents of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus, Friday threw stones and clashed with Israeli security forces who arrived at the settlement to investigate an attack by settlers against a nearby Palestinian village.

About twenty residents of the settlement rioted earlier in the Palestinian village of Asira al-Kabaliya, a day after an Israel Defense Forces officer warned of the growing radicalization of settlers in the area.

The settlers threw stones, breaking a window in one of the houses. IDF soldiers were called to the area and dispersed the rioters. Soldiers recorded that the settlers were drunk due to Purim festivities.

Some 150 settlers later heckled police and IDF officers, called them Nazis, punctured a tire of a military vehicle and prevented them from entering the settlement. Troops and police left the area without making any arrests.

A senior military official in the Nablus district branded the settlers' behavior as "a despicable conduct by drunken bandits."

He commented that, "the situation will continue worsening unless effective law enforcement measures are applied against extremists."

"The army can prevent friction between settlers and Palestinians but at the end of the day it is difficult to provide evidence [against settlers] for indictment," the official said.

He listed several violent incidents where settlers, mainly from Yitzhar and Itamar, attacked local Palestinian. "We see a trend toward radicalization of settlers. There is a rise in the number of attacks carried out by Jews against Palestinians."