Region
Israel PM warns Jewish settlers over carrying out ‘price tag’ attacks
Israel PM warns Jewish settlers over carrying out ‘price tag’ attacks
March 08, 2011 | 12:00 AM
AFP/Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned hardline Jewish settlers against violent "price tag” attacks of retribution against Palestinians.
The warning came just days after a series of anti-Palestinian attacks in the wake of the army’s razing of a building in a settlement outpost last week, with Netanyahu saying such violence would be "dealt with.”
"The concept of ‘price tag’ is unacceptable,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. "There is no taking the law into ones own hands. Those who decide the law in Israel are the courts.”
The settlers routinely react when police and soldiers demolish structures in settlements or wildcat settlement outposts. Reactions also include targeting Palestinians in a policy they call "price tag” attacks. This is violence against the local population as a direct response to "anti-settler” activity by the Israeli government.
"The whole concept is totally unacceptable and we will make sure those who break the law are dealt with.” Netanyahu said.
Last week police removed a caravan, a tent and another half-built structure in Havat Gilad outpost west of Nablus. That prompted settlers to fire bomb a house in Huwarra village, which saw two children taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
They also smashed up shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron. Over the weekend, another group cut down 500 olive tree saplings that had been planted on the site of a former settlement outpost.
Anti-settlement movement Peace Now says there are more than 100 wildcat outposts strewn across the West Bank, all of which have been set up without permission from Israeli authorities.
Netanyahu has committed to removing those that are built on private Palestinian land by the end of the year and legalising others.
| Israeli Prime Minister Banjamin Netanyahu gestures as he talks to Israeli soldiers during a visit to an army base in the Jordan valley in the occupied West Bank |
The warning came just days after a series of anti-Palestinian attacks in the wake of the army’s razing of a building in a settlement outpost last week, with Netanyahu saying such violence would be "dealt with.”
"The concept of ‘price tag’ is unacceptable,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. "There is no taking the law into ones own hands. Those who decide the law in Israel are the courts.”
The settlers routinely react when police and soldiers demolish structures in settlements or wildcat settlement outposts. Reactions also include targeting Palestinians in a policy they call "price tag” attacks. This is violence against the local population as a direct response to "anti-settler” activity by the Israeli government.
"The whole concept is totally unacceptable and we will make sure those who break the law are dealt with.” Netanyahu said.
Last week police removed a caravan, a tent and another half-built structure in Havat Gilad outpost west of Nablus. That prompted settlers to fire bomb a house in Huwarra village, which saw two children taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
They also smashed up shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron. Over the weekend, another group cut down 500 olive tree saplings that had been planted on the site of a former settlement outpost.
Anti-settlement movement Peace Now says there are more than 100 wildcat outposts strewn across the West Bank, all of which have been set up without permission from Israeli authorities.
Netanyahu has committed to removing those that are built on private Palestinian land by the end of the year and legalising others.
March 08, 2011 | 12:00 AM