In the wake of the wave of violence and murder in the Arab sector – the last incident occurring over the weekend with the triple-murder in Baqa al-Gharbiyye – a convoy organized by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee is to depart for Jerusalem on Tuesday morning to protest the rampant violence that has afflicted the Arab community in recent years and has reached record levels in 2020 with at least 108 murder victims.
The majority of Arab citizens in Israel live in despair, confusion and helplessness, and have lost faith in a state that doesn't eradicate this violence and crime; a government that refuses to make this issue a serious priority; a police force that is part of the problem rather than the solution; an Arab leadership, particularly the Knesset representative who have failed in their duties; and they have lost faith in their mayors, who have the most influence over what happens in their towns, cities and villages.
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The fear in the Arab towns has reached a breaking point. There is no night without gunshots, grenades, torched vehicles. Some of the targets are public servants, including mayors and heads of public institutions, and not a weekend goes by without a murder or two or maybe even three – either due to personal and family disputes, some involving criminal organizations over protection money or control of turf; and much of the time these organized criminal gangs, sometimes with the knowledge of the decision-makers, dictate the pace, determine the agenda and guide events, and in some instances even determine who wins a public tender on the local level – in a cycle that leads to the accumulation of more and more power.
The Israel Police, in the meantime, which is perceived as ineffectual and apathetic, is proud of putting police stations in Arab towns but has solved only one-third of homicides and constantly repeats the old-new claim that "the Arab citizens don't cooperate enough" to bring criminals to justice. Which begs the question: Does the police need to wait for citizens in order to do their job?
Yes, investigating crimes in Arab society is uniquely complex, but there is no excuse for the police to hide behind this, and the argument emanating from Arab society, which is at least partly justified, is that if these murders were nationalistically motivated, or if these shootings occurred in Jewish towns, things would look completely different and the failure of the police to stop it would be glaring and reverberate far and wide. Heads would roll, state commissions of inquiry would be formed and the police would be put under a magnifying glass.
And yes, police only arrive after a crime has already occurred, which means the country's leaders must think very deeply about investing and doing more to connect the Arabs to the state – which can only be done if both sides are willing – because good education and a good economy certainly form the foundation for a great deal of crime prevention.
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