{"id":104914,"date":"2023-06-30T17:05:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T15:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104914"},"modified":"2023-06-22T07:06:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T05:06:32","slug":"14-00-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104914","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Arab sector violent crime is a national problem – editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israeli Arab sector violent crime is a national problem – editorial<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

JPOST EDITORIAL <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As each day goes by, more Arab citizens of Israel are being killed, and the vast majority of law-abiding, peace-loving members of Israel\u2019s Arab society are living in fear.<\/strong><\/span>
\n.<\/h4>\n

Police at the scene of a shooting in Qalansawe, June 2023 \/ (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)<\/em><\/p>\n

Khaled Khaldi, a 50-year-old man from the Bedouin town of Khawalad near Haifa, was gunned down on Monday, most likely the result of an ongoing criminal dispute, the police said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

According to the Abraham Initiatives organization, which tracks murder statistics in the Arab community, Khaldi\u2019s murder marked the 91st Israeli Arab violent death in 2023<\/a>, compared to 34 at this time last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Khaldi was murdered on the same day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting with a group of Arab MKs and Arab local council representatives to discuss ways to combat the escalating violence in the Arab community<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There have been more murders in the Arab sector in the first five months of 2023 than there were in all of 2016 (64), 2017 (75), and 2018 (74). The number of people killed in the Arab community this year is on the trajectory to reach more than 200, far outstripping the worst year of violence when 126 Israeli-Arabs were killed in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Those numbers are astounding, and the representatives of the Israeli Arab sector are crying out for the government and the police to do something to help them. As the violence spiraled out of control in 2021, the Bennett-Lapid government budgeted some NIS 2.5 billion for the task and drew up a holistic approach to tackle the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

PRIME MINISTER Naftali Bennett and Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai examine rifles caught during Operation Ocean last month. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The plan \u2013 called Safe Track<\/a>, under the responsibility of the then deputy public security minister Yoav Segalovitz \u2013 included steps aimed at dismantling organized crime, hitting the sources of funds for organized crime, cracking down on arms smuggling, strengthening the governance in the Arab sector, and building trust and increasing cooperation with the Arab local authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It is a long-term plan that would take time to implement, yet by the end of 2022, the murder rates in the Arab sector had dropped by some 13%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Minister, nothing can be done. They murder each other. It\u2019s their nature. It\u2019s the mentality of the Arabs.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Kobi Shabtai to Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israel’s government does not prioritize tackling Arab sector crime<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This trend was halted in its tracks in January. According to a study by Ephraim Lavie, Mohammed Wattad, and Meir Elran of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), part of the problem is that the current government is not prioritizing the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The fact that Monday\u2019s meeting with Netanyahu took place only some five months after the government\u2019s formation points to the INSS conclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The lack of trust in the government of the Arab MKs is understandable. Past statements by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich make it clear that their priorities are the Jewish population of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In addition, the distrust deepened when a tape of Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai<\/a> emerged of him telling Ben-Gvir, \u201cMr. Minister, nothing can be done. They murder each other. It\u2019s their nature. It\u2019s the mentality of the Arabs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Despite their apparently well-founded distrust, the MKs from Hadash-Ta\u2019al did meet with Netanyahu, and made it clear that they want the issue to be handled by Netanyahu directly, and not by Ben-Gvir, who earlier in the day, announced that he would appoint a special commissioner to handle crime in the Arab sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cIn the view of many and rightly so, the fact that our lives are entrusted to that minister is evidence that the subject [of crime in the Arab community] has been dropped from the government\u2019s scale of priorities, and that has to be changed,\u201d the MKs wrote in the preamble to a 12-point proposal they presented to fight the crime scourge.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ra\u2019am chairman MK Mansour Abbas announced his support for the plan minutes later at a press conference ahead of his party\u2019s weekly meeting, but he later said that the party had decided not to join the meeting with Netanyahu, with fellow Ra\u2019am MK Waleed Taha tweeting, \u201cWe will not take part in a false show by Netanyahu.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

At the end of the meeting, Netanyahu agreed to the establishment of a ministerial committee, which he would chair, to fight the growing epidemic of violence and crime in Arab society.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a positive development, but action now needs to take the place of words.  As each day goes by, more Arab citizens of Israel are being killed, and the vast majority of law-abiding, peace-loving members of Israel\u2019s Arab society are living in fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It\u2019s not an Arab problem, it\u2019s a national one. Both the government \u2013 and the police \u2013 need to internalize that, and do something about it now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli Arab sector violent crime is a national problem – editorial JPOST EDITORIAL As each day goes by, more Arab citizens of Israel are being killed, and the vast majority of law-abiding, peace-loving members of Israel\u2019s Arab society are living in fear. . Police at the scene of a shooting in Qalansawe, June 2023 \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104914"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105117,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104914\/revisions\/105117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}