Vandals scrawled graffiti on a mosque in the southern West Bank in an apparent “price tag” hate crime, an AFP correspondent and Israeli police spokesman said on Wednesday.
According to spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, when unknown assailants sprayed the words “Price tag Migron” in Hebrew on the exterior wall of the mosque in Imreish village south of Hebron.
“An investigation was opened on Tuesday when units examined the scene. No damage was caused to the mosque,” Rosenfeld said. Police were “looking at it as a criminal incident with nationalistic motives.”
Eyewitnesses said the assailants also tried to burn a car, but the vehicle’s owner awoke and shouted at them, causing them to flee.
“Price tag” is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists, normally targeting Palestinians and Arabs and tending to involve the torching and vandalism of cars, mosques and olive trees.
Over the past year, however, the attacks have widened in scope and also targeted the Israeli army, Israeli anti-settlement activists and several churches.
Migron is the name of what was the largest West Bank settlement outpost, which was evacuated earlier this month.
Police had said they were bracing for retaliatory action, and two days after the evacuation vandals attacked a Trappist monastery in Latrun.
