"Price tag" vandalism on the Qusra mosque in the West Bank. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

“Price-tag” property vandalism attacks by Israelis against Arabs have garnered headlines worldwide, but a recent spate of reports suggest a parallel, anti-Israeli trend.

Unknown individuals overnight Monday spray painted PLO flags on a bus stop at Shilat Junction near Modi’in, according to the 0404 local news site.

The graffiti is similar to recent attacks in Jerusalem, Haifa, the Lavi Forest in the Galilee, and at many religious and public locations and sites throughout Judea and Samaria.

The term “price-tag” has come to refer to destructive acts by settlers and their supporters in the wake of Palestinian terror attacks, or in response to government activities to either limit construction of or demolish Israeli homes built in disputed areas beyond the 1949 Armistice lines.

While senior Israeli security officials, politicians and the media have widely characterized the anti-Arab and anti-government graffiti, tire-slashings and car torchings as “terrorism,” few, if any have publicly made similar calls for apprehending or decrying the presumed perpetrators of the anti-Israeli acts.

Police and media reports of hundreds of such attacks since Israel’s 2005 pullout from Gaza presume the perpetrators are disaffected, nationalistic “hilltop-youth” living in or visiting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

However the relative paucity of arrests and even fewer convictions strengthen contentions that at least some of the acts are carried out by Palestinians and their supporters in order to harass and defame the Jewish settlement enterprise overall.

On several occasions, Palestinians and their supporters have been caught on film while staging vandal attacks. In some cases, they have been suspected of damaging vehicles or structures in order to both collect on insurance from the loss, and reap public relations victories against Israel.