Two Israelis charged with torching Beduin tent in suspected \’Price Tag\’ incident

 

The suspects, Beit Shemesh resident Avi Gafny, 19, and an unnamed minor have been indicted in the Jerusalem District Court for arson, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. A third suspect was arrested but has not been indicted.

 

The Shin Bet said that Gafny is an activist with the so-called “hilltop youth” extremists in the West Bank, and that he has recently been residing at the “Baladim” outpost outside Kochav HaShahar in the northern West Bank. On three different occasions in the past two years Judea and Samaria district Police served him with restraining orders banning him from the West Bank because of “information indicating involvement in a number of incidents of arson of property and religious sites belonging to Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem,” according to the Shin Bet.

 

The tent that was torched on August 13th was used as a storage facility near the village of Ein Samia. Investigators also found Hebrew graffiti at the scene reading “administrators of revenge,” sprayed on a stone, believed to be a reference to the arrests of three right-wing Jewish extremists placed on administrative detention.

 

No one was harmed in the fire, which is believed to be a "Price Tag" incident, the term used to describe acts of violence and or vandalism committed by Jewish extremists against Palestinians to protest Israeli government and security policies in the West Bank. 

 

The indictment was cleared for publication on Monday as the Shin Bet and the Israel Police were the subject of criticism from Israeli politicians for the apparent failure to solve the deadly arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma on July 31st that killed three members of a local family. The attack is widely believed to have been committed by Jewish right-wing extremists, but no one has been charged with the crime.