‘Price Tag Bill’ seeks to up penalty for attacks

MKs Tibi, Sarsour hope legislation will deter those who attack places of worship or incite violence against any religion.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Mosque attack in Kfar Burka 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of Btselem)
Mosque attack in Kfar Burka 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of Btselem)
Anyone who attacks a place of worship will face six years in prison if the “Price Tag Bill” proposed by UAL-Ta’al MKs Ahmed Tibi and Ibrahim Sarsour should pass.
The bill, which the MKs hope will deter “price-tag” attackers, doubles the current sentence for vandalizing places of worship or burial.
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In addition, Tibi and Sarsour propose to increase the penalty for incitement, which includes spoken or written defamation of a religion, to two years.
“We are witness to a wave of harm to holy places, including mosques and Muslim cemeteries,” the MKs write in the bills explanatory section.
Tibi and Sarsour explain that attacks on mosques threaten public order and personal security, as well as the status of religious sites, and that the bill’s purpose is to defend places of worship for all religions.
According to the MKs, there is a need for increased deterrence and immediate retaliation for such crimes, which “incite against a group or religion in order to harm it and offend its religious sensibilities.”
The bill has yet to be put to a vote by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation or the Knesset, and is unlikely to pass in its current format, which has no cosponsors from any of the larger coalition or opposition parties.
In the past few weeks, mosques have been burned and anti-Islam graffiti, such as the words “price tag” and calls for revenge for the demolition of outpost were sprayed on their walls.