MK calls for administrative detention for ‘price tag’ perps

Right- and left-wing politicians voiced outrage at Tuesday’s suspected “price tag” attack in the Israeli Arab village of Abu Ghosh outside Jerusalem, and MK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima) advocated treating suspected Jewish perpetrators of such attacks in the same manner as Palestinian terror suspects.

Hasson, a former deputy director of the Shin Bet security service, said in an Israel Radio interview that suspected price tag perpetrators — who, he said, are ideologically-driven people who are experts in suppressing evidence — should be placed under administrative detention. He called on legal experts to formulate ways in which “price tag” vandals could be prosecuted.

MKs on both sides of the aisle condemned price tag attacks — particularly Tuesday morning’s incident in Abu Ghosh, in which vandals slashed the tires of 28 cars and scrawled invective on nearby walls. According to Ynet, one of the 28 cars vandalized on Tuesday morning belongs to former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, who had left it with a friend in Abu Ghosh for repairs.

Burg was relieved that nobody was injured in the incident, but referred to such attacks as “absolutely shameful… acts of terrorism.”

President Shimon Peres called Abu Ghosh Mayor Salim Jaber on Tuesday to condemn what he referred to as “racist behavior that crosses a red line.”

Peres told Jaber that “the residents of Abu Ghosh are dear to my heart and to the State of Israel, they are symbols of coexistence.”

Jaber told the president that “this is the act of a small group which seeks to destroy the good relations, but we are stronger than them.” He added that the residents of Abu Ghosh “love the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

The village’s deputy mayor told Israel Radio that Tuesday’s “price tag” incident was the first one to have occurred in Abu Ghosh.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were a breach of Jewish morality, and that the perpetrators would be apprehended and prosecuted “with the fullest severity.”

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said that arrests would be made shortly in the Abu Ghosh “price tag” attack, and warned that these incidents threaten to ignite tensions between Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Opposition leader Shelly Yachimovitch (Labor Party) reacted by blaming an “extremist minority” for the attacks, which she said causes severe damage to Israel’s image abroad and to the delicate fabric of Jewish-Arab relations at home.

She called it “inconceivable” that Israel’s intelligence apparatus, known internationally for its ability to gather information and to act upon it, has been unable to clamp down on this group of lawbreakers.

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page that such attacks are “immoral and not Jewish,” and accused the perpetrators of “sowing evil.”

“[They are] creating a chain of hatred and violence between Arabs and Jews in our country,” Bennett wrote, and pledged not to let the vandals “give our enemies around the world the tools with which to blacken our faces.”

Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) called Tuesday’s attack “despicable,” but defended the Cabinet’s decision not to classify such incidents as acts of terror.

Meretz head Zahava Gal-on blamed the “price tag” attacks on the “inadequacy of law enforcement agencies” and blasted the decision to not treat the perpetrators as terrorists.

The term “price tag” attack is used to describe crimes, typically but not always vandalism or arson of Palestinian property, carried out by extremist Jews as ostensible retribution for Israeli government actions — such as demolition of illegal West Bank construction — which they deem contrary to settler interests.

Last month, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) and Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) presented a proposal to classify these kinds of attacks as terrorism, in order to increase the tools at police disposal in the battle against a rising number of price tag attacks on non-Jewish targets, including churches and properties of Israeli Arabs and West Bank Palestinians.

Earlier this week, the cabinet rejected the call to label such activities terrorism but approved measures that would make it easier for authorities to prosecute such attacks.

Police opened an investigation into Tuesday’s incident, but have yet to apprehend any suspects.

Located a few miles west of Jerusalem, Abu Ghosh is an Arab village located among Jewish towns and agricultural settlements, and its 6,000 residents have traditionally enjoyed cordial relations with their Jewish neighbors.

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