Israeli settlers punctured and vandalized about 15 Palestinian-owned vehicles on Saturday in the Issawiya neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Muhammad Abu al-Hummus, member of a local follow-up committee, said that Israeli settlers stormed the neighborhood from its north-east entrance and vandalized about 15 Palestinian-owned vehicles.
Al-Hummus added that the Israeli settlers punctured the tires of the vehicles and spray painted racist, anti-Arab slogans on the neighborhood walls and on one of the vehicles.
The racist slogans read “Arabs of Jerusalem are terrorists.”
Al-Hummus called on the committees and institutions of Issawiya neighborhood to detain the Israeli settlers responsible for the vandalism.
Many Palestinian activists and rights groups have accused Israel of fostering a "culture of impunity"for Israelis committing violent acts against Palestinians.
Better known as "price tag" attacks, extremist Israeli settlers use violent acts of retribution on Palestinians and their property to demonstrate their opposition to Israeli restrictions on settlements and their outposts in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported that Israeli settlers' vandalism in the occupied West Bank is a daily routine and is fully backed by Israeli authorities.
B'Tselem said that “Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources. This occurs because Palestinians avoid entering areas in which they have been attacked, usually close to settlements.
“As a result, extensive Palestinian farmland near settlements has been vandalized and neglected to such an extent that it yields poor crops, making it not worthwhile for the owners to risk their safety to get there. This process has essentially erected invisible walls throughout the West Bank, which Palestinians know crossing will expose them to violence and even danger to their lives,” according to B’Tselem.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
