Israel charges two Jews over racist attacks

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Two suspected Jewish extremists have been charged with racially motivated attacks against Arab-owned property, the justice ministry said Thursday, after a spate of vandalism.

A 16-year-old arrested earlier this month for scrawling graffiti on and smashing the door and windows of a dentist’s practice in Yokneam, an Arab Druze town in northern Israel, was charged on Thursday, the ministry said.

The minor’s name was not made public, in accordance with Israeli law.

On Wednesday, prosecutors filed charges against Adir Yosef, 26, for damaging an Arab-owned car in Yokneam earlier in May.

According to the charge sheet, Yosef’s alleged felony was part of a wave of 14 racist crimes that took place in and around Yokneam over the past three months.

So-called price tag attacks are nationalist-motivated hate crimes by Jewish extremists that mostly target Palestinian and Arab property, but have also included attacks on other non-Jews as well as leftwing Israelis and the security forces.

A spate of attacks preceded last week’s visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land, prompting calls from some government ministers and security officials to label the attacks “terrorism”.