THIRTEEN ARMY SUVs have been damaged at an Israeli West Bank base in what is believed to be another “price tag” attack by militant Jewish settlers in response to the raising of homes by the Israeli authorities on an illegal outpost earlier this week.
On Monday, a West Bank mosque was set alight and vandalised, but whereas targeting Palestinian property by Jewish militants has become almost routine, a revenge attack inside an Israeli army base was unprecedented.
The perpetrators broke into the military base near Ramallah on Tuesday night, cut the vehicles’ cables and slashed their tyres. Graffiti in Hebrew read “Binyamin Brigade Commander – bad for the Jews” and “Regards from Migron”, the name of the outpost where three buildings were demolished this week.
The police, army and Israel Security Agency officials were investigating the incident and one possibility was that soldiers serving on the base aided the perpetrators.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned the incident as “an abhorrent crime directed against commanders and vehicles whose mission is to protect the lives of Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria ”.
Defence minister Ehud Barak called the act “criminal” and said that the perpetrators would be caught soon. “Acts of vandalism against Israelis and Palestinians are intended to disrupt routine life [in the West Bank] and to cause an escalation during this sensitive period,” he said.
The attack came as the army and settlers were co-ordinating efforts ahead of the possibility of violence in the West Bank later this month, when the Palestinians are expected to submit a motion at the United Nations seeking endorsement of an independent state.
Israel fears that Palestinian protest marches might develop into clashes with settlers .
Some 300,000 settlers live in the West Bank, the home to 2.5 million Palestinians. Each settlement, in co-ordination with the army, has set a “response line” around its perimeter. If Palestinians cross the line, soldiers and settlers have been ordered to fire warning shots into the air and, as a last resort, fire at the marchers’ legs.
East Jerusalem could also be a potential flashpoint. Jonathan Yossef, a representative of Jewish settlers who have moved into the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in recent years, told a Knesset parliamentary committee yesterday that, if necessary, he would use violence against Arab protesters. “When someone hits you, you don’t have to be a Christian and turn the other cheek. What do you think, that I’ll let them come in to my home and kill my wife and children? That I’ll call the police? That I’ll be put on hold until they arrive?” he asked.
The West Bank Settlers’ Council strongly condemned the “price tag” attacks, calling them the acts of an extremist fringe.
“Those responsible for the crimes must turn themselves in to the police, and the security forces must act with resolve to uproot this aberrant phenomenon,” a statement from the council said.