Palestinian West Bank village targeted in month’s sixth apparent hate crime
Tires of 13 vehicles slashed and Hebrew graffiti daubed in Sarta, calling for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Police on Thursday opened an investigation into an apparent hate crime targeting a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, where 13 cars were found with their tires slashed and Hebrew hate slogans were spray-painted on walls.
“Let’s wake up and expel the enemy,” read one phrase daubed on a wall on the outskirts of Sarta, near the Barkan industrial zone. “Non-Jews in the land = enemies,” read another.
Thursday’s incident was the sixth apparent hate crime in June, but police have yet to apprehend any suspects. The previous attacks targeted Sinjil, Deir Istiya, Kafr Malik, Einabus and Yasuf — villages in the central and northern West Bank.
Despite the dozens of hate crimes targeting Palestinians and their property in recent months and years, arrests of perpetrators have been exceedingly rare. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual, with the majority of charges in such cases being dropped.
The incidents, often referred to as price tag attacks, are usually limited to arson and graffiti but have sometimes included physical assaults and even murder.
In December, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report that showed a 69 percent increase in settler attacks on Palestinians in 2018 compared to 2017.
