JERUSALEM: CCTV catches suspected settler vandalism in East Jerusalem

Record ID: 353861

  • Title: JERUSALEM: CCTV catches suspected settler vandalism in East Jerusalem
  • Date: 29th May 2013
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MAY 29, 2013) (REUTERS) ON SAME STREET SEEN IN CCTV FOOTAGE, VAN WITH GRAFFITI READING (Hebrew): "EVIATAR REVENGE" ON SIDE AND "EVIATAR 30" ON BACK OF VAN BOY COMING OUT IN STREET CCTV CAMERA ON POLE ANOTHER CAR WITH GRAFFITI READING (Hebrew): "REVENGE" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RESIDENT, MOHAMAD ABU TAHA, SAYING: "He saw the three cars and he came by and woke me up
  • Embargoed: 13th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEN9CQQVIVD9L2A0B6JCMQ8JJ4
  • Story Text: Palestinian vehicles were attacked overnight in the occupied West Bank and in Arab East Jerusalem in what appeared to be attacks by militant Israeli settlers, Israeli police said on Wednesday (May 29).
    Israeli police said seven vehicles were vandalised in East Jerusalem and seven in two West Bank villages.
    Close circuit camera television obtained from an East Jerusalem resident showed four individuals poking holes in a van. The tyres of at least three vehicles parked in the street were slashed and graffiti reading 'Eviatar revenge' were sprayed on the cars.
    The graffiti referred to Eviatar Borovsky, a settler stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the West Bank on April 30.
    These kind of incidents have been daubed "Price Tag" incidents.
    The term is used by militant settlers, who say they will exact a price for Palestinian attacks or any attempts by the Israeli government to curb settlement activity.
    "Price Tag" attacks have targeted Palestinian mosques and homes as well as churches in Jerusalem and Israeli military installations in the West Bank.
    The man who owns the camera, Mohamad Abu Taha, described what he saw.
    "On the camera, we saw four people, Jewish of course. They came in and started to poke holes using screwdrivers and to write with paint 'Eviatar revenge', as you can see. This is for Eviatar who was killed at the Tapuah junction about a month ago," Taha said.
    A police spokesman said the incidents were being investigated but no arrests had yet been made.
    Taha complained that the Israeli police was not doing enough to arrest those responsible.
    "This is what happened. It is not the first time it happens, it may be the seventh time our neighbourhood is attacked by settlers. We caught them one time and we handed them over to the police, for nothing, they did nothing about it," Taha said.
    In separate incidents, seven vehicles were vandalised in the West Bank villages of Zubeidat and Marj en-Naja, Israeli police and the military said.
    Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the police was looking to see if both incidents were related.
    "We are obviously looking to see if there is a connection between both those incidents which took place approximately fifty miles apart from each other. This is in fact the third incident that is taking place with, criminal incident with nationalistic motives, over the last two weeks in Judea Samaria and Jerusalem," Rosenfeld said, using the term Israeli use to refer to West Bank.
    Some 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. More than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in those areas.
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