Cars torched in northern Arab town in suspected hate attack

Two cars were torched and graffiti was daubed on a wall at the entrance to an Arab village in northern Israel overnight Wednesday, in the latest in a string of anti-Arab acts of vandalism.

The slogans “administrative price tag” and “regards from the banned” were spray painted on the wall in the village of ‘Ara in the Wadi Ara area southeast of Haifa.

“The banned” appears to refer to suspected Jewish extremists who have been prevented from entering the West Bank through so-called “administrative orders,” ostensibly due to fears that they will instigate violence.

“Price tag” is a slogan often associated with Jewish hate attacks against Arabs and Christians.

The overnight attack, which police and the internal security services said they were investigating, was the third suspected hate crime this month.

The previous attack, on Friday, saw a tractor set ablaze and graffiti painted on a wall in the West Bank Palestinian village of Burin, near Nablus.

A star of David and the Hebrew word for “revenge” were spray-painted near the destroyed tractor.

Burin is a short distance from the Palestinian town of Hawara, where an Israeli man whose car was attacked by rioters late Thursday opened fire at the crowd, shooting dead a Palestinian man and injuring an Associated Press photojournalist.

On May 9, police reported finding around 20 cars vandalized on Route 21 in East Jerusalem, along the border between the Jewish ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo and the Arab Shuafat neighborhood. The words “price tag” were daubed on some vehicles, several tires were slashed, and a wall in the neighborhood was spray-painted with the words “Mohammed is an administrative pig.”