Arab students affiliated with Hadash who study at Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv reported over the weekend that settlers belonging to a “Price Tag” group spray-painted racist graffiti outside student dormitories at the institute of higher learning. The Hadash students’ organization told journalists that settlers broke into a compound of dormitories and graffitied walls with racist, hate and anti-Arab slogans.

“Kahana was right” – among the racist slogans graffitied on walls near a student dormitory at Tel Aviv University. The slogan is a reference to the fanatical and racist American Rabbi, Meir Kahana, whose legacy included his call for the expulsion of all Arabs from the lands controlled by the State of Israel. (Photo: Zo Hederech weekly)

“Price Tag” refers to actions carried out against Palestinians and their property by underground, anti-Palestinian groups of young, radically right-wing Israeli activists. The youths claim to “exact a price” from local Palestinians, whether in the Occupied Territories or with Israel proper, or from Israeli security forces, for any action taken against their settlement enterprise.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is commonplace, but is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities who still refuse to categorically label “Price Tag” acts as instances of terrorism, considering them only vandalism, even though such actions have resulted in deaths and serious injuries.

Perhaps the most heinous “Price Tag” attack took place on July 31 2015 when the home of the Dawabsha family was firebombed in the village of Duma, near Nablus in the northern West Bank before dawn. 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha died in the blaze and his father Saed (30) and mother Reham (27) suffered extensive burns and fought for their lives in hospital, but subsequently died. The only surviving member of the young family was Ahmad who was four years old at the time of the attack. The orphaned child suffered burns to 60 percent of his body.

Among the graffiti sprayed on the walls of the torched Dawabsha home was “Price Tag.” It was suspected at the time that the attack was in reaction to the Israeli government demolishing illegally built houses in the settlement of Beit El.

Related:

• Posts on the “Price Tag” attack against the Dawabsha home in the summer of 2015
• Hadash: Government Not Doing Enough to Stop “Price Tag” Attacks