Palestinian official: Declare 'price tag' crimes as terrorism

The Palestinian Authority has asked the US, Canada, Russia, the European Union, the UN and the Arab League to declare groups who are commiting anti-Arab "price tag" crimes as terrorist organisations, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki sent letters in the past few days to officials, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, urging them to take action against "hilltop youth" activists, the newspaper reported.

"These groups play a role in killing, incitement to violence and spreading the culture of hatred and racism," he wrote in the letter, according to Reuters.

Over the past month, the number of "price tag" attacks has spiked after Israeli police took down a handful of illegally built structures in Yitzhar. A hilltop settlement in the West Bank, Yitzhar is home to around 100 or so far-right activists who security officials believe are behind the attacks.

Last week, in a report for the Middle East Eye, Kate Shuttleworth travelled to Yitzhar and spent a day talking with residents.

Yitzhar settlement spokesman Ezri Tobi told MEE, “As far as we’re concerned 'price tag' can’t be tied to Yitzhar specifically, if there was a person that was found here we don’t take responsibility them. So price tag as far as we’re concerned, I can’t speak for it.” 

On 8 April, hundreds of Yitzhar's residents allegedly attacked Israeli Border Police who were attempting to demolish illegal structures, according to reports.

In response to the attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted in Haaretz as saying, "We will act with zero tolerance against whoever harms IDF soldiers and their commanders. The assailants will pay for their criminal acts."

So-called "price tag" crimes first started to occur in 2008 when far-right Jewish settlers and other extremists adopted a policy of attacking Palestinians and their property in the West Bank in order to exact a "price" for state moves to take down illegally built settler outposts.

What began as a marginal phenomenon against Palestinians has since expanded considerably and spread across the Green Line into Israel, where it has become a much more widespread expression of hatred against non-Jews, but also against Israelis seen as hostile to the settlement enterprise.

Such attacks, with their trademark offensive Hebrew graffiti, take place at night and tend to involve damage to vehicles, the destruction of olive trees, and arson attempts, mostly against mosques although Christian churches and cemeteries have also been increasingly targeted.

Private homes and Arab-run businesses have also been "tagged", along with occasional attacks on Israeli police and soldiers over their involvement in taking down settler outposts.

Those behind the attacks are believed to be Jewish extremists, most of them aged under 18. Police say the fact that most of those arrested are minors has complicated the judicial process. The justice ministry has refused to say whether anyone has been successfully prosecuted.