crime

Police officers at the scene of a car bombing in Ramle, September 5, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

How weapons from the Gaza war are killing Palestinians on Israel’s streets

Arab crime organizations are carrying out attacks using smuggled military explosives, with experts accusing the government of turning a blind eye.

By Baker Zoubi October 1, 2024

Family and friends attend the funeral of five Palestinians who were shot to death in the Bedouin town of Basmat Tab’un, September 29, 2023. (Flash90)

Abandoned by the state, Palestinian citizens of Israel face record crime wave

Amid a proliferation of weapons and worsening police negligence since Oct. 7, violence by criminal organizations in Arab towns has reached historic levels.

By Baker Zoubi May 30, 2024

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir attends a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, July 30, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

‘Sorry Mohammad’: What’s behind Ben Gvir’s apartheid honesty?

The national security minister’s brazen remarks are simply an expression of what this government was elected to do: rip the mask off Jewish supremacy.

By Edo Konrad August 25, 2023

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Mourners at the funeral of 29-year-old Naeem Marjiyeh and 15-year-old Rami Marjiyeh in the the Catholic Church in the town of Yafa an-Nasariyye. The two were murdered, among three others, in a criminal shooting. June 9, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

‘Mama, are we going to die soon?’ Arab educators grapple with spiking violence

Lacking state support, three Palestinian citizens of Israel share what parents and schools can do to help children exposed to pervasive gun crime.

By Vera Sajrawi June 20, 2023

Members of the Palestinian community protest against the violence in their community, outside the Knesset, May 21, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Why Israeli police aren’t the solution to Palestinian crime

The fixation on policing has funneled us into a debate that avoids the real roots of the crisis of gun violence among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

By Amjad Iraqi June 18, 2023

Police and medical personnel at the scene investigate the murder of a woman in her 30's that was shot dead, in Lod, July 26, 2022. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

How crime in Lydd became a front for the Israeli right’s agenda

Palestinian residents say that politicians' attempts to link crime with nationalism avoids addressing the discriminatory reality in the 'mixed city.'

By Baker Zoubi February 22, 2023

Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel protest in Tel Aviv against police inaction and surging crime and violence in Arab communities, March 13, 2021. (Flash90)

Why Israel wants Palestinians to have guns

From criminal gangs in Lyd to security forces in Ramallah, Palestinians who turn their guns on each other are serving Israel's apartheid rule.

By Rami Younis September 8, 2021

Palestinian citizens of Israel protest outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem against gun violence and organized crime in their communities, October 10, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

How crime became a cover for Israel to tighten control of Palestinian citizens

Rather than addressing the roots of crime and violence among Palestinian citizens, Israel is advancing plans to depoliticize the community.

By Shahrazad Odeh December 4, 2020

Palestinian citizens of Israel protest against violence, organized crime, and recent killings in their communities, in the Arab town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel, October 3, 2019. (David Cohen/Flash90)

‘No one cares’: Palestinian citizens decry Israeli inaction on gun violence

With casualties rising, Palestinian citizens of Israel say the police are refusing to address the root causes of crime and violence in their communities.

By Judith Sudilovsky September 29, 2020

Palestinians, many of whom came from the West Bank, are seen in Haifa during the last day of the Eid al-Fitr, July 19, 2015. (photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

Israel’s Arab community and its contempt for its youth

I have zero expectations from racist Jews, but I’d expect the Arabs, my own community, to be less judgmental of young people. You have no idea what it’s like to walk down the street fearing the police and criminals, as well as your judgment. By Abed Abu Shehadeh Every time a young Arab is killed…

By Haokets May 2, 2016

Israeli police arrest an Arab youth during a protest in Nazareth in northern Israel, October 8, 2015. (Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

More police won’t solve Arab crime in Israel

The government is exploiting the shooting attack in Tel Aviv to disguise discriminatory policies against Palestinian citizens as an effort to bring the rule of law to an ‘unruly’ society. Prime Minister Netanyahu directed a range of comments at Israel’s Palestinian community Saturday night, speaking at the scene of a deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv. A…

By Amjad Iraqi January 3, 2016

An Ethiopian bar attacked by a mob after a protest against African refugees and asylum seekers in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood on May 23, 2012. (Photo: Activestills)

The face of violence: between racism and banal evil

In 1998, an Israeli film appeared called “Buzz.” It was based on a true story that had rocked the country four years earlier: two teenagers murdered a taxi driver, shooting him six times in the back. In the style of some great literature, there was no motive at all, just sheer thrill for boys who…

By Dahlia Scheindlin September 1, 2012

In your face. We were surrounded by an angry mob. (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

Mob against migrants: How far can the violence go?

The rioting last night in south Tel Aviv against African migrants – some of them asylum seekers – was another one of those moments that paralyzed me with a mixture of disbelief, horror and sorrow. The photos of smashed windows were reflexively associated in many Jewish minds with Kristallnacht, as many people on social networks…

By Dahlia Scheindlin May 24, 2012