Rabin memorial trashed in prisoner deal protest

A monument commemorating Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was defaced early on Friday, in an apparent protest against the upcoming release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier. White paint was spilled over the monument, and the words "price tag" and "free Yigal Amir," Rabin's convicted assassin, were sprayed on the monument and on a near by wall. "Price Tag" is typically the calling-card slogan used by militant Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and their supporters. Israeli media reported that the Israeli who sprayed the slogans said his parents were killed in a Palestinian suicide attack and that his motive for the vandalism is his objection to the prisoner swap deal agreed upon by Israel and Hamas. The vandal, named as Shvuel Schijveschuurder, was detained by Tel Aviv municipality security personnel. According to the prisoner exchange deal, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will be freed from five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip next week in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The deal, over three years in the making and a casualty of at least two breakdowns, was finally brokered last week with Egyptian mediation between Israel and Hamas. While most Israelis welcomed the prisoner swap, many family members of Israelis killed by those slated for release voiced objection to the swap. Israeli police are investigating the vandalism of the Rabin memorial, which stands on the spot where he was assassinated in 1995 by Yigal Amir, an Israeli radical opposed to his brokering of the Oslo Accords which established limited Palestinian self-rule.