- Title: WEST BANK: Vandals spray anti-John Kerry graffiti in West Bank
- Date: 31st December 2013
- Summary: JALAZOUN, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 31, 2013) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOUSE WITH GRAFFITI, READING (Hebrew) REGARDS TO JOHN KERRY, TO BE CONTINUED...' GRAFFITI READING 'BLOOD WILL BE SPILLED IN JUDEA AND SAMARA! AND MUCH OF IT!' AND REGARDS TO JOHN KERRY, TO BE CONTINUED..' CLOSE OF GRAFFITI READING (Hebrew) 'REGARDS TO JOHN KERRY' PALESTINIAN WOMAN AND CHILD LOOKING AT DESTROYED CAR VARIOUS OF CHARRED VEHICLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNNAMED PALESTINIAN WOMAN SAYING: "When I opened the door, I said that is the terror left by the thieves of the night. The car was already burning. They ran off that way and the guards from the settlement were standing just there." VIEW OF NEIGHBOURING BEIT EL JEWISH SETTLEMENT EXTERIOR OF HOUSE WITH GRAFFITI
- Embargoed: 15th January 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVABKCZY3ALJMCHVI4IHGR2WGB3S
- Story Text: Vandals torched three Palestinian cars in a West Bank refugee camp on Tuesday (December 31) and sprayed graffiti against Secretary of State John Kerry who is due to visit the region this week, Israeli police said.
No casualties were reported.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that the incident took place in the early hours of the morning and that a number of suspects fled the area. He added that the police unit in charge of the investigation deals with criminal incidents with nationalistic motives.
Similar incidents in the past were labelled by police as 'price tag', a term which refers to retribution Jewish settlers say they will exact for any attempt by the Israeli government to curb settlement in the West Bank, an area Palestinians seek as part of a future state.
"Price Tag" attacks have targeted mosques, Palestinian homes and Israeli military installations in the occupied West Bank.
A local villager said that security guards in the adjacent settlement of Beit El did not interfere.
"When I opened the door, I said that is the terror left by the thieves of the night. The car was already burning. They ran off that way and the guards from the settlement were standing just there," the unnamed villager said.
The incident took place hours after Israel set free 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of US-brokered peace efforts and on the eve of another visit by U.S. Secretary of state John Kerry to the region.
Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners - the latest group is the third of four to go free - as part of a U.S.-package that in July revived peace talks after a three year break.
The U.S State Department welcomed the release and said it was a "positive step forward." Kerry would be travelling to the region on Wednesday (January 1) to hold talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kerry has been pushing the sides toward a peace deal on a "two-state solution" in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Palestinian state and wants the sides to agree to a framework for an interim accord ahead of a deal in April.
But the talks, which are held far from the public eye, appear to be making little progress.
On Friday the Palestinians warned that negotiations could fall apart, after an Israeli official said that after the prisoner release plans to build 1,400 homes for Israeli settlers in the West Bank would be announced.
Palestinians want that land, along with East Jerusalem and Gaza, for a state. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Middle East war and Palestinians see its settlements, deemed illegal by most countries, as denying them a viable state. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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