2 cars burned in suspected anti-Arab hate crime in north
Amid spate of racist attacks, Hebrew-language graffiti reading, ‘Jews, let’s win’ found in village of Iksal
Two cars were torched and Hebrew-language racist graffiti was daubed in an Arab Israeli village overnight Tuesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of anti-Arab hate crimes over the past two weeks.
Arsonists burned the two vehicles in the village of Iksal, in the north of country. On a wall a Hebrew slogan read, “Jews let’s win.”
Police opened in investigation into the incident.
It was the eighth such crime believed to be carried out by Jewish extremists in little more than a week.
On Monday, slashed tires and Hebrew-language slogans were found spray-painted on the walls of two Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
In Ramun, east of Ramallah, the phrases “Let us take care of them” and “We’ll take our fate into our own hands” were graffitied on cars as well as a fence surrounding a home.
A second instance took place in Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, where photos from the Yesh Din rights group showed homes spray-painted with the Hebrew phrases “Fight the enemy, not your loved ones” and “Administrative revenge.”
The latter slogan referenced the dozens of administrative orders issued by police in response to hate crimes, largely carried out by young, far-right settlers.
The orders, when used to prevent settler violence, can include detention, bans from entering the entire West Bank, and bans on contacting certain individuals, as well as nightly curfews.
This week’s attacks came after five other occurrences in the preceding days reported in the Palestinian villages of Burqa, Burin, Urif, Issawiya and Luban a-Sharqiya.
Attacks have included the chopping down of dozens of olive trees, stones thrown through the windows of homes, and cars and graffiti calling for the murder of Arabs.
On Sunday, the Shin Bet security service released statistics showing far-right hate crimes against Palestinians have increased significantly since the beginning of 2018.
Through the first four months of the current calendar year, the Shin Bet documented 13 “price tag” attacks (not including incidents this week). That was in contrast with only eight such incidents in all of 2017.
“Price tag” refers to vandalism and other hate crimes carried out by Jewish ultra-nationalists ostensibly in retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies perceived as hostile to the settler movement. Mosques, churches, dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases have been targeted by far-right vandals in recent years.
Last month, the Lod District Court handed down a five-year prison sentence to a settler teen convicted of membership in a terror organization, for carrying out a string of “price tag” attacks against Palestinians and their property.
The Times of Israel Community.