Settler graffiti on a Palestinian door in Hebron, West Bank (Photo: Rosie Gabrielle)
Palestine has asked the EU to blacklist violent Jewish settlers as "terrorists", in what Israel is calling "a PR stunt".
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Malki, wrote to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on 11 May to complain that "organised" settler groups, called "price tag" and "hilltop youth", are attacking people in the West Bank in order to "forcibly transfer them away from their land and homes".
He noted there was a "sharp increase" in incidents, called "price tags" because they are meant to exact a price for anti-settler activities, in the past nine months.
"In the last month alone, these … included vandalising Muslim and Christian cemeteries, beating children, attacking women with pepper spray, launching raids against villages, inscribing racist graffiti, torching cars."
He accused the Israeli army, which controls the territory, of giving them "protection".
"We call upon you [Ashton], who has regularly condemned such attacks, to take the only decision possible as regards 'price tag' and 'hill-top youth' by considering them as terrorist groups, with all the political, legal, and financial implications such a decision holds," he said.
His letter is carefully worded to match the EU's 2002 definition of "terrorist" acts and groups.
It flags up that the US Bureau of Counterterrorism in its last report named "price tag" groups as a threat to peace. It also notes that two left-wing ministers in Israel's ruling coalition recently urged Israel itself to designate them as terrorists.
The EU is studying Malki's appeal. One source said it is likely to seek a legal opinion before it replies.
Decisions on the blacklist are made by EU countries' intelligence officers or interior ministry officials who meet in Brussels each six months or so.
Its list from February names eight Palestinian entities, including Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
If the EU listed a Jewish group, it would represent a sea change in Middle East politics, following decades in which "terrorism" has been used to label Arab actions, from the massacre at the Munich Olympics in 1972, to suicide bombings in Israel during the last Palestinian uprising 14 years ago.
For its part, Israel does not believe the EU will take Malki seriously.
Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, called his letter "a PR stunt".
He said the attacks are not designed to displace Palestinians, but to cause trouble for Israeli authorities if they take steps against settlement activity. "Anyone who knows anything about the price tag activity knows Israel is the actual target," he noted.
"I don't know how many people have participated in price tag activity, [but] it's probably down there in the single digits," he added.
"It remains disappointing to see the Palestinian leadership pursuing conflict, through, in this case, a cheap stunt, rather than getting down to the serious business of negotiating a settlement."
He spoke after Israel broke off peace talks on grounds Palestine aims to form a unity government with the "terrorist" Hamas movement.
How the EU responds to Malki remains to be seen, but it is taking a softer line on Hamas than Israel would like.
EU foreign ministers last week "supported intra-Palestinian reconciliation" on condition the unity government renounces violence, even if Hamas' old charter continues to call for the destruction of Israel.
John Gat-Rutter, the EU's head of mission to Gaza and the West Bank, told EUobserver Hamas is becoming more moderate despite its rhetoric.
"I think there's an opportunity to move Hamas in the direction that we have wanted to move it. There's an opportunity to embark on a process … where we will come to a stage where there is a readiness [for it] to commit to those principles," he said, referring to UN powers' principles on a negotiated settlement.
Militants fired 69 rockets at Israel from Gaza last year, compared to 2,557 in 2012.
Israel says Palestinians in the West Bank attacked Israeli targets 1,271 times in 2013. Most incidents involved throwing firebombs. But three Israelis were knifed to death, two were killed by snipers, and one was abducted and murdered.
Malki says settlers attacked Palestinians 650 times in the past nine months. His side says Israeli soldiers killed 61 Palestinians in the same period.
Uprooted Palestinian 
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