* Possible retaliation for settler eviction on Sunday
* Vandals daub name of settlement, profane graffiti
* Israel, Palestinian Authority condemn attack
(Adds Israeli prime minister's comments, para 6)
JERUSALEM, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Vandals set fire to the doors
of a Christian monastery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on
Tuesday and daubed pro-settler graffiti on its walls in a
possible retaliation for the eviction of families from an
unauthorised outpost.
The name of the unauthorised Migron outpost, cleared of
Israeli settlers following a court order on Sunday, was scrawled
on the well-known 19th century Latrun Monastery, alongside the
words "Jesus is a monkey" in Hebrew, police said.
Israeli security officials had said they were worried
Sunday's eviction of 50 families from Migron, in another part of
the West Bank near Ramallah, might provoke more attacks by a
vigilante settler group known as "Price Tag".
The "Price Tag" name refers to retribution some Israeli
settlers say they will exact for any attempt by their government
to curb settlement in the West Bank, an area Palestinians want
as part of a future state.
The group has targeted mosques and, less commonly, Christian
churches, regarding any non-Jewish religious sites as an
intrusion on the land.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Tuesday's
attack. "This is a heinous act and those responsible for it must
be punished severely. Freedom of religion and worship are basic
fundamentals in Israel," a statement from his office said.
Palestinian Christian academic Bernard Sabella told Reuters
that the attack, and others like it, had been carried out by
"groups of extremist Jews who do not want Muslims or Christians
to remain in this country".
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, issued a
statement accusing the Israeli government of not doing enough to
prosecute the attackers.
An Israeli rabbi from a liberal wing of Judaism visited the
monastery and called the attack an "ugly event".
"As a rabbi and as an Israeli citizen I am ashamed today and
I am deeply troubled by the fact that this is not the first time
that such an event takes place in Israel, " Rabbi Gilad Kariv,
the head of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive
Judaism, told Reuters Television.
"We need to make sure that the other faiths, other
communities feel secure here," Kariv added.
The Latrun monastery is near Jerusalem on land Israel
captured in the 1967 war, and then annexed, in a step that has
never been recognised internationally. It is surrounded by a
valley, close to the West Bank's "Green Line" boundary with
Israel, where fighting took place in two Arab-Israeli wars.
Police said they had launched an investigation into the
attack.
Vandals attacked Jerusalem's 11th Century Monastery of the
Cross and a Baptist church in the city in February. Israeli
human rights groups have accused the authorities of being slow
to punish the perpetrators.
(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, additional reporting by Jihan
Abdalla, editing by Tim Pearce)