RAMALLAH – Jewish settlers early Wednesday torched and vandalized Palestinian vehicles in the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Jalazoun, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. The Palestinian sources said that the settlers torched the car of Nuruddin Soboh and spray painted two vehicles at the camp north of Ramallah with the phrases “price tag Migron,” “revenge against the Arabs” and “freedom for the homeland.” The sources said that the hate slogan hate slogan “Death to Arabs” was also sprayed on a house fence. Israeli police suspected the attack is a “price tag” act, a slogan adopted by extremist Jewish occupiers who carry out reprisals against Palestinians and their properties in response to the evacuation of settlement structures by Israeli forces. The Israeli Army Radio said that a large police and army forces arrived at the camp and searched the area but failed to find the perpetrators. Palestinian and Israeli security officials estimated that the “price tag” attacks against Palestinians and their properties were likely to increase in the coming days in the wake of the impeding evacuation of the illegal settlement outpost of Migron. On Tuesday, the Israeli Supreme Court High Court of Justice held a hearing on the eviction of the outpost's 50 families, because their homes were built without permits on lands owned by residents of the Palestinian village of Burqa, to the east of Ramallah. The court is slated to make a decision on the matter in the coming days. Wednesday brought the most recent “price tag” attacks by settlers. On Tuesday, two Palestinian cars were torched and spray painted in the village of Sa'ir, located to the northeast of Hebron. The settlers spray pained the slogans “Revenge” and “Regards from Asher Palmer”, referring to a deadly September 2011 attack in which the Israeli settler Asher Palmer and his were killed. The issue of settlements is one of the thorniest issues that stall the resumption of direct peace talks between Palestinian Authority and Israel which collapsed in October 2010 because Israel insisted to continue settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The international community, including the United States, Israel's most important ally, has been urging Israel to totally freeze its settlement constructions, yet the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government has so far refused to yield to that demand. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said early this month that the number of settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem reached 536,932 by the end of 2011 compared to 523,939 by the end of 2010, with a growth rate of 1.3 percent. They live among 2.5 million Palestinians.
