Palestinian cars vandalized in price tag attack

A Palestinian man stands next to his car sprayed with graffiti in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat on June 11. Photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Seven cars were vandalized in a Palestinian neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem in what is being called a price tag attack.

The tires of the cars were slashed and the word “Ulpana” was spray-painted on one of them. The graffiti refers to the Ulpana neighborhood on the outskirts of the Beit El settlement, where five apartment buildings housing some 30 families are scheduled for evacuation by July 1.

“Price tag” refers to the strategy that extremist settlers have adopted to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians and Arabs in retribution for settlement freezes and demolitions, or for Palestinian attacks on Jews.

On June 8, vandals damaged property and defaced Neve Shalom, a village near Jerusalem that has served for decades as a model for Jewish-Arab coexistence.

Graffiti saying “Death to Arabs” and “Revenge for Gilad Farm” and “Revenge for Ulpana” was on buildings in Neve Shalom, in the hills outside Jerusalem, and tires were slashed.