Anti-Arab graffiti scrawled in West Bank village

Graffiti calling for the death of Arabs was found daubed on the wall of a house in a Palestinian village near Ramallah on Thursday, in a “price tag” attack that appeared to be revenge for the near lynching of Jewish settlers earlier in the week.

Slogans such as “death to the Arabs,” “revenge,” “Jews wake up,” and “Esh Kodesh” were sprayed on the building in the village of Sinjil.

The attack appeared to be retaliation for an incident two days earlier in which settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh were beaten by Palestinians after trespassing in the village of Qusra, allegedly on the way to carry out a so-called “price tag” attack.

On Wednesday Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared the price tag attacks to be acts of terror and said security forces intended to make a determined effort to stamp out the trend.

Price tag attacks, acts of violence and vandalism usually performed against Palestinians and their property and typically carried out by Jewish nationalists as retribution for government moves, have become increasingly common in recent years. Mosques, churches, dovish Israeli groups and Israeli military bases have been targeted in such attacks.

A similar attack was discovered on Wednesday morning, when two cars were torched in the Palestinian village of Madama near Nablus, allegedly by enraged settlers. Graffiti sprayed nearby proclaimed “Esh Kodesh,” “Revenge,” and “price tag” alongside a Star of David.

In the Tuesday incident, a group of Israeli settlers was captured by Palestinians, allegedly while en route to carry out a “price tag” attack, and held outside Qusra near the West Bank city of Nablus. The settlers, some of whom were beaten by their captors, were handed over to the IDF after several hours.

They had allegedly approached Qusra in an attempt to carry out an attack, in protest over the Israeli Civil Administration’s uprooting earlier in the day of a settler olive grove near the West Bank outpost of Esh Kodesh. The settlers, said to have come from the outpost, were reported to have clashed earlier with the Palestinian village’s residents.

A settler representative, however, said they were attacked while taking a hike.

A ‘price tag’ attack in the village of Sinjil, near Ramallah, January 09, 2014. Slogan reads ‘Esh Kodesh’ (photo credit: Arik Ascherman/Rabbis for Human Rights)