Israeli official: Price-tag vandals should be considered terrorists

Anti-Arab Jewish extremists carrying out so-called price-tag attacks are terrorists, Israeli Environmental Protection Minister said Wednesday. Officials say price-tag attacks are acts of random violence. "We will pay a heavy price for the expanding price-tag trend," Peretz said. "This is a group of irresponsible criminals who will do all they can to fan the flames of dispute out of a desire to cause extremists on the other side to respond, thereby causing an escalation that could turn into an uncontrollable fire," he said. "They must be stopped and treated as terrorist groups, and all measures must be taken to bring them to justice." In a recent spate of vandalism, the tires on about 30 cars were slashed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa and anti-Arab graffiti was spray-painted, Haaretz reported.