Yokne'am 'price tag' suspect ordered kept in custody

The suspect, 25-year-old Adir Yosef, was caught while trying to puncture the tires of a car belonging to an Arab man at a job site in Yokne'am.

By BEN HARTMAN
Vehicle vandalized in suspected price tag attack in Yokne'am (photo credit: Courtesy)
Vehicle vandalized in suspected price tag attack in Yokne'am
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A Yokne’am man allegedly caught carrying out a “price tag” attack was on Thursday ordered kept in custody for seven days so police can finish working on the case.
Officers from a special investigative unit spotted the suspect, Adir Yosef, 25, on Wednesday. They said he was trying to puncture the tires of a car belonging to an Arab man at a construction site in the city. In a briefing on Thursday morning, police said Yosef had been under surveillance and that officers were following him at the time of the alleged incident.
Yosef currently faces charges of vandalism and illegal possession of a knife.
Police believe he acted for ideological reasons, according to his arrest warrant.
Though he does not, according to police, fit the profile of a “price tag” suspect, the cover photo on his Facebook page is of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the far-right American-Israeli rabbi assassinated in New York in 1990.
Kahane, a former MK, remains an icon of the Jewish far Right in Israel and abroad.
In the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, police said they still had a series of investigative procedures to carry out, and asked for 10 days’ remand extension.
Yosef’s lawyer asked police if they believed his client heads a cell of “price tag” offenders, and if so, why hasn’t the rest of the cell been arrested. Police refused to answer, referring the judge to classified details of the investigation. They did say that there are other suspects whom they need to question.
On Wednesday, the words “Death to the Arabs” were written on the office of a Druse dentist in downtown Yokne’am, the second time the premises has been vandalized in a month. Altogether, there have been six suspected “price tag” incident in the northern city in the past month. Police are working to trace Yosef’s possible connection to the incidents.


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