Is the violence of tag mehir a state crime?

Abstract

This article focuses on the violent acts of Tag-Mehir (Price Tag), a group of Israeli citizens that injure, attack, vandalize and violate Palestinian individuals, communities and property. The paper discusses the criminalities of Tag-Mehir by reporting statistics on their crimes and juxtaposing statistical data with voices and analyses of Israeli officials and media coverage. By looking at the interlocking effects of religious, hate and state crime in the context of Israel's settler colonialism, we argue that the acts of Tag-Mehir constitute aggressive violence aimed at concealing the state's criminalities against the colonized Palestinian body and space. The state's failure to effectively prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes demonstrates a tacit approval for the religiously and nationally motivated violence. Tag-Mehir's state crimes hide within the resulting violent shuttling between nationalistic hate, violence and religious crimes.