Within the first three weeks of February, 16 Arab citizens of Israel were murdered by their own people. Victims such as Dr. Abdallah Awad, who was gunned down in his clinic in front of his patients, and 14-year-old Wael Abu Ziyad, who was shot dead in Lod, once again highlight the scale of the state’s failure to address violent crime in Arab society. The victims of this failure have names and faces, and their numbers are only increasing.
The current situation, which poses a threat to Israeli society as a whole, is not an unavoidable fate. When the previous government decided to define it as a national challenge and to devote all the necessary means and resources to it, there was a small but promising reduction in the level of crime in Arab localities.
In addition, the experiences of other countries tell us that when effective and consistent policing and enforcement is combined with efforts to address underlying social and economic factors, the crime rate falls.
This is what happened in New York and in Chicago, and it is what happened with the Mafia in Italy. Indeed, the type of criminal activity in Arab society is very similar in certain respects to the example of the Italian Mafia: criminal organizations have developed a huge economic base for their activities, with tendrils sunk deep into normative society. This is criminality marked by sophistication and advanced technological and economic capabilities, deeply enmeshed in the community, socially and politically. Combating this type of crime requires a different level of planning, commitment, daring, and determination.
These attributes are lacking among those who are currently charged with dealing with the issue. Without any doubt, former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s term in office did not help the fight against organized crime, and may even have hindered it.
Similarly, the fact that there is, currently, no full-time national security minister or project director in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for violence and crime in Arab society (with the previous director having recently been appointed acting civil service commissioner) further exacerbates the challenge. And if that wasn’t enough, several months ago the five-year budget for the fight against crime was cut – yet another indication of the level of neglect of this issue.
In the meantime, the future is only looking bleaker. A survey published recently by the Israel Democracy Institute about the financial situation of workers during the war found that 55% of Arab workers have experienced a decline in their household income relative to pre-war levels, compared to 32% of non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and 20% of the ultra-Orthodox.
Similarly, 40% of Arab respondents reported that their households have no liquid funds available, as contrasted with 23% of non-haredi Jewish households, and 28% say that the bank overdraft they had before the war has grown larger due to the war, more than double the equivalent share among non-haredi Jews.
In other words, the socioeconomic factors that can drive greater violence and crime have been accelerated as a result of the war.
In parallel, processes of politicization in the police and the civil service, the undermining of professionalism in the public sphere, damage to the rule of law and to government decision-making processes – such as cutting the five-year budgets against the explicit recommendations of the professional echelon – directly impact the state’s ability to fight crime and violence.
These developments, together with the fact that the government has not yet defined defeating crime as a real policy target and instead has made do with empty declarations, lead to the fear that the number of murder victims this year will surpass those of the last two years, unless the government makes a substantive and immediate change to its policy.
FIRST AND foremost, a national state of emergency should be declared and major action should be taken against the criminal organizations. This would require a revision of existing government plans for fighting organized crime, to provide for a multi-front offensive involving all law enforcement agencies.
Periodic police “operations” are no use, as the criminal organizations have studied the police and their methods, and often take bold and sophisticated action that leaves them two steps ahead. The current situation is such that criminality pays, both economically and socially. The police must update their operational strategy and create a new situation in which crime is simply not worthwhile.
The issue will require real political commitment
In addition, real political commitment to the issue is required, in the form of appointing a minister with a special portfolio of coordinating the government’s actions on this issue, and appointing a project director within the civil service. Central government oversight and coordination will be essential, including a minister with the political capabilities to manage interactions with the various government agencies that need to work in a cooperative manner with clear and measurable goals.
A political decision must be made to regain control over safety in Arab localities – returning it from criminals to government bodies – and to put an end to the privatization of personal security. These are the most basic responsibilities of the state toward its citizens, and Israel must fulfill them.
The message that will be broadcast to Arab citizens by appointing a special minister, and by implementing on a massive scale the government plans to address all those areas of life in which the current situation enables crime to flourish – such as education, poverty, land allocation, and public spaces – is that they do not stand alone against unbridled criminality. At the moment, criminals face only isolated and terrified individuals. They must be made to understand that they face an entire state and society against which they have no chance of success.
Adv. Anat Thon Ashkenazy is director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions. Adv. Reda Jaber is a consultant to IDI on matters of crime in Arab society.