Activist's home vandalized in latest 'price tag' attack

Graffiti spray painted on door to known Peace Now activist's home in Jerusalem; organization head calls for speedy police investigation.

By MELANIE LIDMAN
price tag 311 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
price tag 311
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
A left-wing activist in Jerusalem was the recipient of the latest “price tag” attack, after right-wing demonstrators spray-painted “Price Tag Migron” on the entrance to her building in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem sometime late on Sunday night or early Monday morning.
The activist, who asked not to be named, works as the head of the Settlement Watch Team for Peace Now.
RELATED:Palestinians report further 'price tag' attack in W. Bank
“They know where we live and they’re trying to frighten us,” she said. “We don’t need to be frightened, we need to take it seriously and be careful, but not be afraid.”
The vandals also wrote “Peace Now, the end is near,” “Revenge,” “Migron Forever” and “Death to traitors” up the stairwell of the building. The graffiti was cleaned after police investigated the scene.
“There are other peace activists and other army commanders who got the same graffiti, so I’m in good company,” she joked on Tuesday.
Since the demolition of three homes in the Migron settlement on September 5, two mosques in the West Bank in the towns of Yatma and Quasara were vandalized with the same graffiti. Additionally, price-tag vandals infiltrated an army base last Wednesday next to the Beit-El settlement and damaged 13 vehicles.
A police investigation was opened into the attack against the activist, and Police and IDF are investigating the attacks in the West Bank.
“I think in the last two or three years there has been a deterioration towards violence,” said the activist, who has never been the victim of vandalism before. “We don’t see it just against peace activists but also against Palestinian activists, that they think they can behave with violence,” she said.
Peace Now slammed the attacks.
“A deep feeling of hatred is being conveyed by members of the government and Knesset to people within Israeli society, one that threatens to harm anyone who opposes the government’s policies or construction within settlements,” said the organization.
Peace Now initiated the petition in 2006 at the High Court of Justice, which ruled this summer that the entire settlement of Migron must be evacuated by March. The three homes in the Migron outpost that were dismantled were recently built, and demolished after Yesh Din won their petition to the High Court of Justice to destroy those three homes.