Price tag policy



Price tag policy (Hebrew: מדיניות תג מחיר) is a policy used by Israeli right-wing extremists and radical settlers, which seek what they see as "revenge" against random Palestinians and against the Israeli security forces, mostly through acts of property damage, arson and graffiti. According to the New York Times, price tag activists attempt to exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise.

The price-tag campaign includes attacks on Palestinian villages and property by Israeli settlers as retaliation for attacks on Israeli targets and for government demolition of structures at West Bank settlements and the removal of outposts which are variously described as being either unauthorised or illegal,   and in recent years (2012-2013), dozens of such attacks have targeted Christian sites and the Christian community in Jerusalem. They generally follow actions by Israeli authorities that are perceived as harming the settlement enterprise, or follow Palestinian violence against settlers. B'Tselem has documented many acts of this kind, which have included blocking roads, throwing stones at cars and houses, making incursions into Palestinian villages and land, torching fields, uprooting trees, and other damage to property. or curbs on Israeli construction in the West Bank, where 80% of the attacks take place, while some 10-15% take place in the area of Jerusalem.

Shin Bet estimates of the extent of the perpetrator group vary: one figure calculates that from several hundred to about 3,000 people implement the price tag policy, while a recent analysis sets the figure at a few dozen individuals, organized in small close-knit and well-organised cells and backed by a few hundred right-wing activists.

The "Price tag" incidents include demonstrations, blocking of roads, vandalism of Palestinian property, violent attacks carried out against random Palestinian civilians, burning of mosques and fields, stone throwing, uprooting trees, making incursions into Palestinian villages and land, damaging the property, or injuring members of the Israeli police and the Israeli Defense Forces, and defacing the homes of left-wing activists.

The roots of the Price tag policy were traced to the August 2005 dismantling of settlements in the Gaza Strip as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. Ever since then, extreme right wing settlers have sought to establish a "balance of terror", in which every state action aimed at them generates an immediate violent reaction.

The "price tag" concept and violence have been publicly rejected by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have demanded that those responsible are brought to justice. Cabinet member Benny Begin stated: "These people are scoundrels, but we have not been terribly successful in catching them." Many people across the political spectrum in Israel have denounced such attacks and some have made efforts to redress the harm. The attacks are widely reported in the Arab media, and have been strongly condemned by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The settler leadership have "fiercely condemned" the price tag policy, and the vast majority of Yesha rabbis have expressed their reservations about it. According to Shin Bet, the vast majority of the settlers also reject such actions.

A Ynet-Gesher survey conducted in March 2011, in the immediate aftermath of the massacre of five members of a Jewish family in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, found that 46% of Jewish Israelis believed the attacks were justified to some extent. In this first poll, a large majority of religious-national and ultra-orthodox respondents revealed their support for these attacks, at rates of 70% and 71%, respectively. A later survey, conducted in November 2011 by Tel Aviv University, found that 88% of Jewish Israelis said they were opposed to the "price tag" attacks, with 38% believing the government's response to the attacks to be "too mild" and another 38% finding the response appropriate. The remaining 13% called the state response "too harsh." In some cases, Israeli settlers have claimed that Palestinians and leftwing activists staged "price tag" attacks as a means of provocation, in an attempt to tarnish the image of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.