JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two leading West Bank rabbis have condemned retaliatory attacks on Palestinians by right-wing activists and called on settlers to turn in perpetrators.
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, 78, and Rabbi Yaakov Medan, 61, heads of the Har Etzion Yeshiva in the Gush Etzion bloc of the West Bank near Bethlehem, distributed a statement Monday throughout the West Bank saying that the activities "have crossed all red lines."
Medan wrote the statement and Lichtenstein signed on to it, Ynet reported. Medan is considered to be more right wing than the philosophy of the yeshiva, which is considered moderate.
"We condemn the actions termed ‘price tag’ against the IDF, mosques and innocent Arabs," the statement read. "These deeds are totally unacceptable from a moral and national perspective, and endanger the entire settlement movement in Judea and Samaria."
"We call on every person, especially the residents of Judea and Samaria, to do all they can to prevent such actions and deliver any information which could thwart ‘price tag’ activities to the councils’ security officers."
Price tag refers to the strategy that extremist settlers have adopted to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians in retribution for settlement freezes and demolitions or for Palestinian attacks on Jews.
Recent attacks on several West bank mosques and the vandalizing of a West Bank military base are believed to be price tag attacks for the razing of three permanent homes in the Migron outpost near Jerusalem.
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