Israeli news media on Tuesday morning headlined an alleged 'Price Tag' attack on a mosque in the village of Akraba, near Shechem. The mosque was set on fire overnight, according to Palestinian Arab sources, who reported the alleged attack to Israeli authorities.
Police said that they were aware of the report but had no further information.
The news coverage showed photographs depicting apparent signs of attempted arson and of a graffito, which says “Price tag – Tapuach is Kahane.”
Tapuach is a Jewish community in Samaria, located near Akraba. "Kahane" is a reference to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a controversial figure who advocated for the transfer of Arabs out of Israel.
However, the graffito has at least two odd characteristics. For one, the letter gimel in the word “tag” appears to have been written backward at first, so it resembles the letter zayin – a mistake that characterizes small children, or people not used to writing Hebrew.
Secondly, the name Kahane was misspelled, with a heh at the end instead of an aleph. It is hard to imagine a true disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane making this kind of mistake.
Suspicious minds would see the mistakes as pointing to a possible non-Jewish perpetrator who wanted Jews to be blamed for the act.
"Price tag” vandalism has been proven on several occasions in the past to have been perpetrated as a provocation by Arabs, who know that the leftist media would immediately, uncritically declare the vandalism to be a Jewish attack.
Earlier this year, a resident of Samaria documented local Arabs cutting down olive trees and painting "price tag" graffiti on the severed trunks.