Price tag attack policy

The price tag attack policy (Hebrew: מדיניות תג מחיר), also sometimes referred to as mutual responsibility (אחריות הדדית), is the name originally given to the attacks and acts of vandalism committed primarily in the occupied West Bank by extremist Israeli settler youths against Palestinian Arabs, and to a lesser extent, against left-wing Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Christians, and Israeli security forces. The youths officially claim that the acts are committed to "exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise".

B'Tselem has documented many acts of this kind, which have included violent attacks carried out against random Palestinian civilians, burning of mosques and fields, stone throwing, uprooting trees, and incursions into Palestinian villages and land. These actions come as retaliation for Palestinian acts of violence against settlers, or decisions by the Israeli government to curb Jewish construction in the West Bank, where 80% of the attacks take place, while some 10–15% take place in the area of Jerusalem. Such vandalism also embraces damaging the property, or injuring members of the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces, and defacing the homes of left-wing activists.

The Israel Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, estimates of the extent of the perpetrator group vary: one figure calculates that from several hundred to about 3,000 people implement the price tag policy, while a recent analysis sets the figure at a few dozen individuals, organized in small close-knit and well-organised cells and backed by a few hundred right-wing activists. Yizhar Hess, comparing hate crimes against Arabs in Israel and antisemitic acts against Jews in France, notes that incidents of price tag attacks are proportionately higher, and argues that price tag acts are Israel's antisemitism. The roots of the price tag policy were traced to the August 2005 dismantling of settlements in the Gaza Strip as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. Ever since then, extreme right wing settlers have sought to establish a "balance of terror", in which every state action aimed at them generates an immediate violent reaction. The definition of such acts as terroristic, however, is the subject of considerable political controversy in Israel.

The "price tag" concept and violence have been publicly rejected by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have demanded that those responsible be brought to justice. Cabinet member Benny Begin stated: "These people are scoundrels, but we have not been terribly successful in catching them." Many people across the political spectrum in Israel have denounced such attacks and some have made efforts to redress the harm. The attacks are widely reported in the Arab media, and have been strongly condemned by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The settler leadership have "fiercely condemned" the price tag policy, and the vast majority of Yesha rabbis have expressed their reservations about it. According to Shin Bet, the vast majority of the settlers also reject such actions.

The acts also referred to as "tactic", "strategy", "doctrine", "campaign", or "principle". The term "price tag attack" now extends to acts of vandalism, and especially to acts of anti-Arab vandalism, suspected to be the work of lone individuals, against the Israeli army and security services, as well as against Christian and Muslim places of worship, and also against left-wing institutions that criticize settlers. In May 2014, Shin Bet said the price-tag hate crimes were the handiwork of about 100 individuals mainly hailing from the Yitzhar settlement and hilltop outposts, and were inspired by the ideas of rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh.

One objection to the use of the term is that it dehumanizes Palestinians. Ron Ben-Tovim argues that it is a supermarket label used as a euphemism for violent acts aimed to instill terror into the hearts of Palestinians, applied to acts against Palestinians by Jews, whereas it is standard in Israeli usage to brand all acts perpetrated by Palestinians against Israeli Jews as terrorism. "Cutting off the head of the terror snake" and "tentacles of terror" are commonly used metaphors. To use a special term, "price tag" for acts of violence against Palestinians is to reduce the terror to a message by settlers to their government, and ignore the victim.

The price-tag campaign includes attacks on Palestinian villages and property by Israeli settlers as retaliation for attacks on Israeli targets and for government demolition of structures at West Bank settlements and the removal of outposts which are variously described as being either unauthorised or illegal, and in recent years (2012–2013), dozens of such attacks have targeted Christian sites and the Christian community in Jerusalem. They generally follow actions by Israeli authorities that are perceived as harming the settlement enterprise, or follow Palestinian violence against settlers.

According to the military correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Amos Harel, the roots of the policy go back to Ariel Sharon's policy of disengagement from Gaza in August 2005 and the demolition in 2006 of the illegal settlement at Amona. The expression is occasionally used for acts that took place before this date, to denote a retributive act. Gideon Levy, for example, describes the settlement of Mitzpe Yair, established in 1998 after the murder of settler Yair Har-Sinai, as "an early 'price tag' operation – an act of retribution for some incident." The term has also been used to describe Israeli retaliative policy against Palestinians, and on behalf of the settler enterprise, by describing PM Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to permit Jews to move into a contested property, Machpela House, in response to the shooting of an Israeli border policeman near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.