Elyakim Ha'etzni
Elyakim Ha'etzni(file)

Kiryat Arba resident and prominent nationalist spokesman Attorney Elyakim Ha'etzni spoke out on national TV Monday against the so-called “price tag” raids that were allegedly carried out by Jews against Arabs in Judea and Samaria. There is no proof that this is what occurred, however.

Ha'etzni, a former Knesset Member for the now-defunct nationalist Techiya party, told Channel 10 news that the people who carry out such raids are “madmen.”

The alleged attacks on mosques damage the settlement enterprise, he said, and serve as weapons in the hands of the people who hate the Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria. Ha'etzni added that if he were an anarchist who wanted to assassinate the character of Jewish settlers, he would do what the “price tag” raiders do: set a fire in a mosque and spray-paint the words “price tag” in Hebrew.

Arabs reported earlier this month that carpets inside a mosque in the village of Beit Fajr in Gush Etzion were set on fire and slogans in Hebrew were spray painted in the walls. They also claimed that a vehicle with yellow license plates was seen driving away from the village right after the fire was seen, but this was not corroborated.

Jews were blamed in two similar incidents in the past year – but the perpetrators have yet to be caught in those cases. Four yeshiva boys from Kfar Hassidim were arrested in the summer after a mosque was vandalized In the nearby Arab village Ibtin – but were released when no evidence was found to implicate them. They denied any connection to the incident.

In December, someone set fire to a carpet in the mosque at Kfar Yusuf near Yitzhar . Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira of Yitzhar and some of his students were arrested more than once, but no evidence has ever been found to link them with the act, in which they categorically deny involvement.