June 18, 2012
Tag Meir — a coalition of Israeli organizations convened by NIF — sent the following letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Prime Minister
MK Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerusalem
Dear Mr. Netanyahu,
Re: Price Tag – A Strategic Threat
We — the members of the Coalition Tag Meir (Bright Tag) comprising non-profit organizations from all sections of Israeli society working to counter Jewish terrorism and violence against Palestinians, Israelis working for human rights and even IDF officers — turn to you concerning the Price Tag attacks that have, to our distress, been continuing for over two years.
Following the decisions of the Government, the Knesset and the High Court concerning Givat Ha’Ulpana, we believe that there is a serious threat of Price Tag attacks erupting in the West Bank and within Israel itself. Warnings of such attacks have been received in the last few days in the Jewish-Arab settlement of Neve Shalom and in the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat in Jerusalem.
During the past two years, a dozen mosques have been desecrated, hundreds of car tires have been punctured, olive trees uprooted, shops and bazaars vandalized, threatening graffiti daubed on the homes of high ranking IDF personnel and IDF bases have even been penetrated and attacked.
Mr. Prime Minister: Past experience has proven that Price Tag activists, bolstered by “Halachic” manuals and “learned” articles, will continue to attack innocent victims to revenge the withdrawal from settlements and homes. Warning of Price Tag attacks has been given: the writing is on the wall.
Sir, we urge you now, not to surrender to these threats and to Jewish terror and vandalism. We are horrified at the ease at which these attacks have taken place in the past and we urge you to order increased security around the Palestinian settlements most at risk, to guard the mosques in these settlements, to increase the number of police and border police patrols in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the inter-denominational institutions. We ask you to increase the security surrounding officials of the Chief Public Prosecutor and high ranking IDF officers who will bear the responsibility for evacuating Givat Ha’Ulpana and the IDF bases in the vicinity.
We believe that the actions of “Tag Machir” present a strategic threat to the moral fiber of the State of Israel to its Jewish character, to its security and its social complexity and it is your responsibility to act with determination to remove this threat from our midst.
Sincerely,
The Action Committee of the Kibbutz Movement, Bina – The Secular Yeshiva, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, The Masorti Movement, Yeshivat Talpiot, Elijah Interfaith Institute, The Shittim Institute, Oz VeShalom Netivot Shalom, Realistic Zionist Movement, One Voice, Rabbis for Human Rights, Shatil, Combatants for Peace, Yod Bet B’Heshvan
c.c.: Minster for Defense, MK Ehud Barak
Minster for Internal Affairs, MK Yitzhak Aharonovitz
Police Commissioner, Yohanan Danino
Attorney General, Adv. Yehuda Weinstein
State Attorney, Adv. Moshe Lador
Please support the suggestions of Tag Meir to stop the violence against Palestinians and mosques. As an American Jew who has tried to support Israel, I am distressed to hear that these attacks are happening. Marjorie Tolins
It is absolutely outrageous that a dozen mosques in the West Bank have been torched by extremist settlers, and to my knowledge, not a single one of these criminals has been prosecuted, or even apprehended. The oft-repeated excuse that “we are unable to identify the perpetrators because nobody will talk” simply defies credulity. If these were Palestinians attacking synagogues, they would have been rounded up by the IDF within hours and sentenced to long prison terms. This is another instance of how the “Lords of the Land” have so intimidated the government and the army that they carry out their crimes with complete impunity. And when the government is finally forced by the Supreme Court into removing a few houses from one settlement– for which Bibi garners praise for “respecting the rule of law” — the settlers are “compensated” by a pledge to build 300 more illegal housing units.
I am shocked that the Israel Government does little to prevent these outrageous acts. If they do not stop them they are condoning them. What has happened to the Jews as a moral people!
Excellent letter, but I wonder if the leadership cares enough to act. Words are cheap. Mr Gil Kulick said better than I can what needs to be said.
Alan Mendelson
Hamilton, Ontario
Without justifying under any circumstances, violence by Jewish civilians against “innocent” Arabs (like the recent attack on the taxi in Gush Etzion..if indeed it was Jewish violence), i would also like to see a similar outcry by this COALITION (Tag Meir) against ongoing Arab violence against innocent Jews living side by side with Arabs in neighbourhoods like Kfar HaShiloach-Silwan, in the heart of Jerusalem. Lets keep things in proportion. On a daily basis the families and students living in Kfar HaShiloach(Yemenite Village) are attacked by molotov cocktails, concrete blocks and other methods of violence, by the local Arabs. Over the last 12 months, there have been over 1,100 “life-threatening” attacks on Jews(on individals, cars and buildings) and its only been “G-d-chane-fate” that people havent been killed.
Lets hear this COALITION speak up against such attacks. And maybe at the same time, they should be looking at what is being spoken about in the mosques, they should look and be critical of the Arab media and the anti Jewish(Israel) education and literature given to Arab kids at many school levels and why such hatred towards Jews is being promoted by an vast assortment of Moslem groups throughout the region.
If this group of “peace loving” organizations dont speak out against such attacks by Arabs on Jews, then one would really need to look at their honesty, integrity and the true motives of this umbrella group.