Five cars vandalized in Jerusalem Price Tag attack

In an attack overnight Saturday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, vandals slashed the tires of five cars, and spray-painted the slogan “Price Tag” on one of them and the words “Jewish blood is not cheap” on another.

Jerusalem District police were investigating the incident, and examining whether it was carried out in response to the weekend murder of Israeli soldier Tomer Hazan by a Palestinian who worked with him at a Bat Yam restaurant.

The term “Price Tag” is used to describe attacks carried out by Jewish extremists on Palestinian property as retribution for Israeli government actions deemed contrary to settler interests. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon announced in July that planning and carrying out Price Tag attacks will be defined as “illegal organizing,” placing them on the same level as Islamic terror groups regarding law enforcement.

Former Shin Bet director Carmi Gillon warned last week that, if current peace talks with the Palestinians make progress, “the next Yigal Amir [the assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin] will emerge from among the people who stand behind Price Tag attacks.”

Gillon, who headed the Shin Bet at the time of the Rabin assassination 18 years ago, added: “We cannot let this topic drop from the headlines. The political and enforcement systems are behaving in a helpless manner against this gravely dangerous phenomenon.”