Israeli police arrest mayor in West Bank settlement

Israeli police have apprehended the mayor of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank after protesters prevented security forces to enter the community and enforce a construction freeze.

Mayor of the Beit Arieh settlement in the central West Bank, Avi Naim, was arrested on Wednesday after he and a number of settlers blocked the entrance to the settlement when Israeli troops arrived. Naim later engaged himself in a quarrel with a police officer.

The incident comes as Israeli settler leaders vowed on Monday to resist a Tel Aviv decision to impose a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction activities following months of pressure from the international community.

Senior settler leaders decided to bar government construction inspectors from the settlements during an emergency meeting. "The council heads decided that Bibi's inspectors will not be allowed into the communities," they said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that Israel has agreed to freeze all settlement activities for 10 months, except in Jerusalem Al-Quds, in a bid to re-launch the stalled Israeli-Palestinian 'peace' talks.

Palestinians have nonetheless refused to start peace talks with Netanyahu unless he freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Tel Aviv is currently under intense pressure from the international community to halt the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Israeli settlements are widely considered as the main obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Under the 2002 Roadmap for the Peace plan brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and freeze all settlement activities'.

There are currently 121 Israeli settlements and approximately 102 Israeli outposts built on Palestinian land occupied by Israel in 1967. All of these settlements and outposts are illegal under the international law and have been condemned by numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions.

These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of approximately 462,000 Israeli settlers. Some 191,000 Israelis are living in settlements around Jerusalem Al-Quds, and an additional 271,400 are spread throughout the West Bank.