Head of Bureau for Combating Crime in Arab Society: Crime Organizations Have Taken Over

By Aryeh Stern

​The State Control Committee, chaired by MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid)​, convened on Tuesday to discuss the cutback in the budget of the plan to combat crime in the Arab sector, following the publication of the State Comptroller’s report on the Israel Police’s handling of crime in Arab society.

“In previous debates we heard the commissioner of the Israel Police saying that he views the war on the surging crime in the sector as the number one goal, and now we have all been updated that its budget has been cut, so these two things are incompatible,” said Chairman MK Levy. “If we will not put the pedal to the metal with regard to the government’s foot-dragging on this issue, we will meet here again in a few months, but with bad results. We will wage a tenacious battle in the Finance Ministry to increase the budget and prevent the cutback.” He said the plans for combating crime in the Arab sector were not being implemented.

MK Waleed Alhwashla (United Arab List – Ra’am) said, “If the Arab sector was a state, it would be ranked after Mexico in terms of crime rate. Nothing has been done in these plans, which have already begun. There are clear facts here, with the number of murder victims constantly growing, and nothing is being done.”

MK Tally Gotliv (Likud) said, “Finally there is a minister who preserves Israel’s sovereignty and is acting appropriately with respect to the fight against crime in the Arab sector. What we need to do is advance the ‘protection law.’ Five hundred permanent positions have been added to the police force, and this is important, because without additional policing we cannot fight crime. But with this amount of illegal firearms and zero cooperation… We will not be able to put an end to it.”

MK Ahmad Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al) said, “Firearms are being smuggled from military bases. How are they not able to cut off the smuggling route? Millions of bullets are being transferred from locality to locality. They can bomb a weapons-laden truck in Sudan, yet they can’t thwart this? This issue has been on the table for 15 years, and it has yet to be resolved. There is self-manufacturing and smuggling from the West Bank, and this is not being dealt with. There is a flooding of firearms in the Arab sector. Every high schooler in the sector can obtain one if he wants to, and indeed, students come to school with firearms. A government has to care for its citizens, even if they are from the opposition and even if they are Arabs.”

MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash-Ta’al) said, “The matter is simple – some have said it openly, and some have said it secretly, but they all want to say that there is something about Arab culture that is related to crime. They view us as a backyard. If an Arab is murdered there, the police are not as interested. We are obviously transparent, because of structural racism and discrimination.”

Roi Kahlon, head of the Bureau for Combating Crime and Violence in Arab Society in the Prime Minister’s Office, said, “The current situation in Arab society is that of loss of state governance, mainly in Bedouin society in the south. Crime organizations have taken over and have become the legal [authority] in the sector, and everyone knows what will happen if a dispute is brought before a state court. They are the law enforcement agencies for implementing arbitration rulings, they run a protection racket and collect protection fees. The situation is bad. When the discussion about the budget began, I published a letter in which I expressed my opposition to a budget cut in the Israel Police and the cancellation of permanent positions [within the force]. The Prime Minister accepted our position and instructed [the Treasury] to reduce the budget cut. In the letter that I relayed to the Prime Minister, I wrote that crime in Arab society was becoming a significant strategic threat to the State of Israel.”

Avia Peron of the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department said the budget of the Israel Police and the Ministry of National Security was increased. Mudar Younis, head of the National Council of Arab Mayors, said, “The Arab local authorities are weakened, and are ranked in socio-economic clusters 1-3. We have no income from employment, only from arnona [property tax], and not everyone pays, because there are many exemptions and discounts. Such authorities are given balancing grants. We fought for a long time for the NIS 200 million, which we received at the end of 2023. The lack of security and fear that exist in Arab society are the symptoms.” The state, he said, is apprehensive about allocating budgets for fear that they will reach organized crime, “but organized crime does not participate in the major tenders of the local authorities.”