Price tag policy

Price tag policy (Hebrew: מדיניות תג מחיר), also known as "Mutual Responsibility" (Arvut Hadadit), is the name originally given to acts of vandalism by Jewish fundamentalist settler youths, aimed at the Palestinian population, Christians, left-wing Israeli Jews,Arab–Israelis, and the Israeli security forces. The youth claim to "exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise" according to the New York Times. The acts also referred to as "tactic", "strategy", "doctrine", "campaign", or "principle". Price tag attacks now extend to acts of vandalism, and especially to acts of anti-Arab vandalism, suspected to be the work of lone individuals, against the Israeli army and security services, as well as against Christian and Muslim places of worship, and also against left-wing institutions that criticize settlers. In May 2014, Shin Bet said the price-tag hate crimes were the handiwork of about 100 individuals mainly hailing from the Yitzhar settlement and hilltop outposts, and were inspired by the ideas of rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg.

One objection to the use of the term is that dehumanizes Palestinians. Ron Ben-Tovim argues that it is a supermarket label used as a euphemism for violent acts aimed to instill terror into the hearts of Palestinians, applied to acts against Palestinians by Jews, whereas it is standard in Israeli usage to brand all acts perpetrated by Palestinians against Israeli Jews as terrorism, and to speak of “Cutting off the head of the terror snake” and “tentacles of terror" are commonly used metaphors. To use a special term, 'price tag' for acts of violence against Palestinians is to reduce the terror to a message by settlers to their government, and ignore the victim.

The price-tag campaign includes attacks on Palestinian villages and property by Israeli settlers as retaliation for attacks on Israeli targets and for government demolition of structures at West Bank settlements and the removal of outposts which are variously described as being either unauthorised or illegal, and in recent years (2012-2013), dozens of such attacks have targeted Christian sites and the Christian community in Jerusalem. They generally follow actions by Israeli authorities that are perceived as harming the settlement enterprise, or follow Palestinian violence against settlers.

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