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| - Vandals punctured the tyres of dozens of cars in the Arab Israeli village of Kafr Qassem overnight, the mayor said on Thursday calling it a hate crime. Mayor Adel Badir told AFP some 35 cars were damaged and that some were sprayed with a threatening slogan in Hebrew and a Star of David symbol, although no one was hurt. Israeli police confirmed they received a report of the punctures in Kafr Qassem and said one car was tagged with the slogan "to expel or to kill". "The circumstances of the incident are being examined," the police said. They did not reply to AFP questions of whether any arrests were made. Badir said it resembled "price tag" attacks, a euphemism for Jewish nationalist hate crimes that target Palestinians and Arab Israelis in perceived retaliation for attacks against Israelis. He described the attackers as "the most extreme group of terrorists". "I call on the police to respond firmly to these extremists," Badir said. "As long as there are no arrests and no one pays a price for these things, they will continue in Arab villages." Kafr Qassem was targeted at least six times in recent years, Badir said, part of a rise in attacks on Arab communities near the border with the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Arabs comprise some 20 percent of Israel's population, descendents of Palestinians who stayed on their land following Israel's establishment in 1948. Thursday's incident came two days after Israeli far-right candidate Itamar Ben-Gvir was poised to enter parliament after the Religious Zionism alliance he belongs to won six seats in Tuesday's election. Ben-Gvir has defended "price tag" suspects and once described Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli who massacred 29 Palestinians, as a "hero". Ahead of the polls, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had encouraged his supporters to vote for Ben-Gvir's party. dac/hkb
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