Police expect 'price tag' attacks after Migron

Judea and Samaria commander confirms police are preparing for second phase of evacuation, which may include violence.

By BEN HARTMAN, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Price Tag 521 (photo credit: Reuters)
Price Tag 521
(photo credit: Reuters)
Police are preparing for increased “price-tag” incidents in the wake of Sunday’s evacuation of the Migron outpost, Judea and Samaria District commander Asst.-Ch. Amos Yaakov.
“I assume that there will be an increase in price-tag incidents, and we have carried out preparations for this,” Yaakov said during a press briefing on Sunday, although he also noted that police had dealt with a rise in price-tag incidents following previous evacuations and he did not see something unique about Migron in that regard.
On Wednesday morning, vandals who attacked cars in the Palestinian village of Dura al-Kara spray-painted the word Migron on one of the cars. It was one of a number of price-tag attacks against Palestinians last month.
Yaakov said that Sunday’s evacuations could be considered as having two different phases.
The first involved the residents of Migron who willingly evacuated, which he said was typified by “mutual respect and compassion, without physical or verbal violence.”
The second phase, he said, involved “youthful law breakers who broke into a number of houses and used verbal and physical violence [against police]. All of the youths were evacuated and taken to Jerusalem, where all but eight were released from custody.”
Throughout the eight-hour evacuation police quickly herded activists, who were mostly teens, away from the outpost, surrounding them immediately when they saw them walking on outpost roads.
In one area of the outpost teens barricaded themselves in a caravan.
At times they sang religious songs. At other moments they hurled insults at members of the Border Police who sat outside awaiting orders to evict them.
Another group of teens congregated on the rooftop of a Migron home at the entrance to the community and spent hours pacing or sitting while Border Police gathered below.
Some residents threw water bottles to the activists, as did MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), who came to the outpost in solidarity with its residents.
In both cases, border police were able to pull the teens away from the structures fairly quickly and place them on waiting buses.