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For years, polls have shown that the number one issue concerning Palestinian citizens of Israel is the epidemic of organized crime and violence within Arab localities.
In 2023, the homicide rate among Palestinian citizens of Israel was the third highest in the OECD. Last year, Palestinians accounted for 252 of Israel’s 305 murder victims, despite making up just 21 percent of the population. And since the start of the new year, little has changed: In less than a month, 18 Palestinian citizens of Israel have already been killed in incidents linked to criminal networks.
In response, Palestinian citizens are stepping up their efforts to combat the spread of organized crime and the state’s inaction against the perpetrators — which many see as a deliberate policy. There were demonstrations across the country this week, from Sakhnin to Umm Al-Fahm, culminating in a general strike on Thursday called by the Union of Arab Mayors and the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens.
This new wave of protests began in Sakhnin, led by small business owners and local leaders, and quickly spread to dozens of Arab towns, even drawing support from a few Israeli institutions (such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). The strike concluded with a mass demonstration in Sakhnin, where more than 50,000 people gathered.
In the absence of meaningful government action and general indifference among Israel’s Jewish majority, much of the pressure to confront the crisis has come from Palestinian civil society and political leaders. One of the most prominent among them is Aida Touma-Suleiman, a longtime feminist, activist, journalist, and current member of Knesset.
Yet after nearly a decade in parliament, Touma-Suleiman announced in November that she would not seek re-election later this year. Explaining her decision, she told Haaretz that “the Knesset embodies all I’ve fought against: oppression, silencing, [and] Jewish supremacy.”
First elected in 2015 as part of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (known by its Hebrew acronym Hadash), she entered electoral politics after decades of activism. In 1992, she founded and led Women Against Violence, a feminist organization advancing the rights of Palestinian women citizens of Israel, and later served as editor-in-chief of Al-Ittihad, the Arabic newspaper affiliated with Hadash.
In this episode of The +972 Podcast, Touma-Suleiman argues that by failing to fight criminal organizations, the state is effectively giving them a free hand. She calls for the creation of new arenas of struggle against Israel’s apartheid policies between the river and the sea, and reflects on the intensifying crackdown on dissent that led her to conclude she can no longer fight for change from within the establishment.
She also discusses the political opportunities and challenges facing Palestinian citizens of Israel ahead of this year’s election. Emphasizing the limitations of representation politics, she cautions against the overarching danger of reducing politics — and feminism — to the provision of basic services, rather than confronting the broader political reality shaping daily life for Palestinians, foremost among them Israel’s occupation.
