Sitting at his computer, security officer Nitsan Brizel pans his remote surveillance cameras out to the main road below the West Bank settlement of Nili, then zooms back in to focus on a Palestinian worker at one of the construction sites in the expanding community.

Brizel and other security officials in Israel’s West Bank settlements are on high alert these days as Palestinians prepare to launch large demonstrations in support of their bid Friday for United Nations membership. Some fear the effort will trigger another violent Palestinian uprising, particularly if it is rejected.

Every settlement has conducted exhaustive emergency drills and training with the Israeli army for possible clashes, including reviewing rules about how and when to use deadly force if necessary. Last week, the French branch of the Jewish Defense League — a group banned in Israel for its extremist ideology — said it would be sending military-trained activists to help protect West Bank settlements.

Beyond defensive measures, settlers are preparing to launch counter-demonstrations to face off against Palestinian protesters at checkpoints or settlement gates. And extremist settler groups have stepped up violent attacks against Palestinians in recent weeks, burning mosques, cars and olive trees.


Some worry that such actions will worsen the already-tense environment in the West Bank.

“The greatest fear is that the settlers become an autonomous element on the ground,” said Shlomo Aronson, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders say Israel is exaggerating the threat of potential Palestinian violence and accuse settlers of trying to provoke the Palestinians.

“If we are expecting a campaign of terror and violence, it’s coming from the Israeli side,” Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki said.


Leaders of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem say they are not looking for a fight but must prepare for the worst.

“We don’t want an escalation,” said Danny Dayan, head of the umbrella settler group Yesha Council, which is calling for Israel to annex West Bank settlements in retaliation for the Palestinians’ U.N. bid. “But we don’t scare so easily.”

Every settlement keeps an emergency response team of volunteer residents who are trained and armed by the military. Their purpose is to hold off attacks until the army arrives. But in anticipation of this month’s U.N. standoff, such preparations have been strengthened.

In East Jerusalem, Jewish activists are training neighborhood guards in hand-to-hand combat and plan to distribute riot gear, such as tear gas and helmets. In the restive West Bank city of Hebron, Jewish settlers last week conducted a dress rehearsal of a possible clash, using students dressed as Palestinian protesters to rush settlement security guards.


Standing instructions from the army authorize settlement security teams to open fire if they feel threatened, but in the age of popular protest such rules are subjective.

“What constitutes a threat to life may be a matter of interpretation,” said Shlomo Vaknin, the Yesha Council’s chief security officer.

If a Palestinian kindergarten teacher paraded her charges to the settlement gate waving flags, Brizel said, he’d greet them with a glass of water. But if a high school teacher arrived with a group of youths, things could be different. “I’ll have to decide when I feel threatened,” he said.

If Palestinians use new weapons of popular protest and social media, Israeli activists say they’ll do the same. A Facebook page launched by the right-wing group My Israel has signed up 12,000 people to participate in or provide transportation for “defensive” demonstrations. Volunteers agree to respond on short notice after receiving email or text messages.


The group says its aim is to deny Palestinians the “good visuals” that might come from news coverage of civilians confronting Israeli soldiers. Instead, the group’s volunteers will attempt to intercept Palestinian demonstrations with their own activists. For example, if Palestinian children march toward a checkpoint, activists will deploy their own children to confront them, according to the group’s website.

Settler groups say that they plan to rely chiefly on the army to protect them but that they will not sit back if Palestinians approach their settlements.

“We’ll have to respond,” Vaknin said. “We won’t allow our communities to be penetrated.”

Sobelman is a news assistant in The Times’ Jerusalem bureau.


Times staff writer Edmund Sanders in Jerusalem contributed to this report.