According to a Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) report, in the past five months there have been 180 “price tag” attacks and vandalism incidents perpetrated by Jews against Arabs. This includes the spray painting of five vehicles in the Gilo neighborhood of the capital on Thursday morning, 14 Sivan 5773. The report adds that in all of 2012, there were 200 ‘price tag’ attacks recorded. (The report includes attacks occurring in Yehuda, Shomron and inside the so-called Green Line).
Today, 20 suspects in price tag attacks have been targeted with administrative orders distancing them from Yehuda and Shomron.
Next week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his Political/Security Cabinet will decide if price tag attacks will be categorized as “terror”. Such a move would give the IDF and police broader authority in preventing and dealing with such incidents. In addition, those found guilty of such crimes would face stiffer sentences.
Some argue that such a move if inappropriate, questioning why at a time when attacks against Jewish motorists throughout Yehuda and Shomron continues to climb, such as the alarming statistics pertaining to attacks at Kever Rochel for example, the government opts to focus its energies on graffiti crimes while ignoring daily life-threatening attacks on Yosh roadways.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Defining seditious graffiti as terror? In all fairness, in that part of the world, anti-governmetn graffiti can get you thrown in jail (if you are lucky). And realistically, ultra-nationalists are probably more of a threat to Israel’s rulers than the Arabs (e.g. in a few months, the Arabs have killed more Arabs in Syria that Israel has killed in almost a century of warfare).
But the important thing to understand is that defining graffiti and vandalism as terror, is really defining sedition as terror.
And very soon, expect such laws to be used against Hareidim protesting the government’s pending policy of open persecution of the Torah world.
180 price tag events in five months. Hundreds of innocent youths brutally arrested, jailed and deprived of their human and civil right. Millions of Shekels spent. And not only has no one been convicted but no one has even been charged. Does anyone share my suspicion that there is something very rotten here?