Youth organization sets up settler monitoring group

Young activists have set up a coordination center to monitor Israeli settler attacks in Hebron ahead of the Palestinian membership at the UN. The group, including Palestinian and international volunteers, human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and university students, will work around the clock to follow up rights violations against Hebron citizens, grassroots organization Youth Against Settlements said Saturday. Group coordinator Issa Amr said the center, which is monitoring settler websites, was set up in response to Palestinians' fears of organized attack from settlers in the area. News reports said two weeks ago that Israeli forces were arming settlers with tear-gas canisters, stun grenades and even trained dogs to counter potential attacks by the Palestinians around the bid for full membership of the United Nations. Amr said the group was collecting information on how to deal with attack dogs, and will hold meetings with communities near settlements. Volunteers and journalists will be sent to particularly vulnerable families to document attacks, Amr said. Hebron, once the Palestinians' largest commercial center, is divided between Israeli and Palestinian control, and the city's Palestinians residents say they face severe movement restrictions and daily violence from the small group of Jewish settlers living in its center. Youth Against Settlements describes itself as a national non-partisan youth group using popular action and resistance to monitor rights violations by Israeli settlers in Hebron.