Mideast Conflict

Israeli right wing activists hold signs during a rally outside the Prime Minister's residence against the government's decision to freeze construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009. About 10,000 Jewish settlers and backers gathered outside the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest his government's freeze on new housing construction in the West Bank and call on him to reverse the edict. The relatively large turnout on a cold, wintry night reflected support for increasingly fierce settler resistance to the government building ban.