FACTBOX: Jewish settlers told freeze temporary but still resist

(Reuters) - Israeli settlers rallied on Wednesday in Jerusalem to protest a November 25 government order to limit West Bank settlement construction for 10 months in an effort to persuade Palestinians to return to peace negotiations.

Here are some facts about the settlements:

* Israel dismisses international findings that the communities it has been building since the 1980s in the West Bank, on Palestinian land occupied by the Israeli military since 1967, constitute a violation of international law.

* It has built over 100 and they are home to 500,000 Jews or 9 percent of Israel's Jewish population. Some are big, established towns close to Israel, others are red-roofed villages on remote West Bank hilltops fenced off and protected by the army. Some 200,000 of the half million settlers live in East Jerusalem and adjoining areas of the West Bank that Israel annexed to its Jerusalem municipality, a move not recognized internationally.

* Settlement building has been a contentious issue for years. The on-again, off-again peace process assumes that if there ever is a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, smaller, more remote settlements will be abandoned but major towns will become officially part of Israel in a land swap deal.

* Many settlers living in enclaves nearest to the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cite cheaper housing costs as a motive. Others see themselves as pioneers exercising a biblical right of Jews to lands they call Judea and Samaria.

* But this year settlement expansion became a major obstacle to reviving peace negotiations that were suspended in December 2008. The Palestinians, who number some 3 million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, said all building must stop before they would resume talks with the Israeli government that took office in March. At first Washington echoed this call for a "freeze."

* In June, President Obama said: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."

* Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition is backed by pro-settler parties who want to keep much of the West Bank under any peace deal. He told Obama he won't start new settlements but wants to expand some existing enclaves to accommodate what he calls the "natural growth" of these communities. And the partial moratorium does not include areas annexed to Jerusalem.

* Netanyahu has defended his move against criticism by pro-settler groups, insisting the partial freeze is one-off and temporary.

* Obama has softened his tone, urging Palestinians to accept Israeli promises of "restraint" and re-start peace negotiations. The Palestinians refuse to budge, saying the kind of state Israel seems to have in mind for them would not be worth living in. The result is deadlock.

(Writing by Douglas Hamilton, editing by Samia Nakhoul)