Nadine Osman

More than 150 cars in an Israeli Arab village were vandalised overnight, police announced on February 11 with slogans sprayed on a mosque indicating the involvement of Jewish extremists.

‘Jews awaken’, and ‘Stop assimilating’ were scrawled on a mosque and another building in Jish, a village in the Galilee just south of the border with Lebanon.
Jish Council head Elias Elias confirmed that the tyres of more than 150 cars were punctured.He said it was not the first time the mixed Muslim and Christian village had been targeted.

“I can only imagine what would happen if things like this would have been sprayed on a synagogue in the US or Europe, the whole world would be in an uproar”.

The incident bore the hallmark of a price tag attack – a euphemism for Jewish nationalist-motivated hate crimes targeting Palestinians and Arab Israelis and their property, as well as Muslim and Christian holy sites. The head of the Arab-led Joint List, Ayman Odeh, condemned the attack and blamed Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric for stoking such hatred.

“For weeks, Netanyahu is sending us one message – you’re not wanted,” Odeh said of Israel’s Arab minority. “Today we see the results.” Netanyahu has been accused of using anti-Arab rhetoric ahead of Israel’s March 2 election, the country’s third vote in a year. Israel has seen a rise in acts of vandalism against Israeli Arabs in recent months, and in December, the tyres of 160 cars were slashed in annexed East Jerusalem.

Last month, Israeli police launched a manhunt after an apparent arson attack on an East Jerusalem mosque accompanied by Hebrew-language graffiti.