Ninety-two percent of the Arab public support the Shin Bet security agency's involvement in efforts to rein in crime in Arab society. This is according to a comprehensive survey by the Stat Research Institute that examined Arab support for the use of advanced technologies used by the Shin Bet to collect illegal weapons in the sector.
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The survey's findings contradict the winds blowing from the Arab political leadership and other radical forces and point to Israel's Arab citizens clearly demanding governance and showing unequivocal support for the state's fight against violence in the Arab street. This includes support for the limited and pinpointed use of advanced tracking technologies to collect illegal weapons.
Why is the Arab public so clearly demanding this painful treatment for its problem? We see this as an expression of the readiness of the Arab society and its translation into a public decision. No more accusations and no more general demands for action by law enforcement, but rather a discussion of the details and significance of necessary action by law enforcement and determining: Yes, we see personal security as a priority that comes before all others. Yes, we demand enforcement and law and order, including through the use of technologies used by the Shin Bet to thwart terrorist activity by both Jews and Arabs.
If the state has at its disposal excellent technology that put an end to the constant bloodshed, clear the streets of illegal weapons, and fight resolutely and effectively against the despair, terror, and grief found in our families,' neighbors,' friends,' and acquaintances,' mourning tents, who cares what else this technology is used for? And how exactly will we be able to do this without it?
The fact that the Arab public did not provide assistance to the security prisoners who escaped Gilboa Prison made perfectly clear, regardless of statements from Arab leadership, how the Arab public feels about the state. The survey's results grant provide further proof.
The time, then, has come for change. We expect the state to demonstrate its governance, fulfill its basic obligations toward us, redeem us of the anarchy that is increasingly taking over our public spaces, destroying our communities, and killing our children. We expect it to rein in the violence and crime with the tools at its disposal. We have crossed the blood-drenched Rubicon. Absent this eradication, we cannot live democratic, safe, and flourishing lives.
We expect this because the enforcement of law and order does not stand on its own, but is rather a complementary and synergetic infrastructure condition necessary for deeper societal and cultural change. We are convinced that when the state grabs the bull of Arab crime and violence by the horns, and hope and security take the place of the killing, the fear, and the despair, there will be room for more long-term processes as well.
For example, deepening cooperation between our communities and the state, establishing informal educational frameworks for Arab youth to help us contend with their sense of a lack of purpose, establishing initiatives to guide them toward integration into the high-tech industry, and restoring the vitality that will lead to the realization of the immense potential found within that is just waiting to be realized.
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