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Scene. File? Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News

In the Galilee region of northern Israel on Tuesday morning, a group of unknown Israeli settlers slashed tires of more than 70 Palestinian vehicles and spray-painted racist graffiti on cars, buildings, homes and mosques.

The attack took place in the village of al-Jish, in the Galilee.

The graffiti was written in Hebrew and included the phrases, “Wake Up Jews…Stop Assimilating”, and “Price Tag”.

The ‘price tag’ slogan is a reference to a movement of radical extremist right-wing settlers who engage in violence against Palestinians.

The New York Times defines this ‘price tag’ idea as “exact[ing] a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise”.

According to Americans for Peace Now, ”

“Price Tag,” started out as an initiative of a segment of Israeli settlers (the most well-known referred to as the “Hilltop Youth”) and their supporters inside the Green Line (and with supporters overseas). Their goal was and remains to deter action by the IDF and Israeli police against illegal settlement outposts (or any other settler activity that violates Israeli law) by making Israeli authorities believe that the costs of such action – in terms of disruptive or violent actions by settlers – would be prohibitive. These actions have involved settlers trying to physically block Israeli forces from tearing down illegal construction, rampaging through the area, attacking Palestinians (leading to injuries) and their property (including mosques), and harassing and even attacking Israeli security installations and personnel (leading to injuries).

Over the years Price Tag has escalated and spread into East Jerusalem and across the Green Line, into Israel, with attacks targeting Palestinian and Palestinian-Israeli individuals, neighborhoods, villages, and religious sites (Christian and Muslim), including mosques, churches and cemeteries.

The “Price Tag” phenomenon is a subset of the wide issue of settler violence and lawlessness; in terms of organized settler violence/terror, it is only the most recent phenomenon, with violence dating back to the late 70s”.

Local sources say that the attacks against al-Jish are not unprecedented, and that Israeli settlers frequently attack the village with impunity.

Israeli police have made no effort to locate and arrest the perpetrators.