During the same period in 2024, 106 Arab-Israelis were murdered in crime-related circumstances; according to official data, 222 members of this community died from this cause in 2023, and another 221 the following year.

In February, Lod Mayor Yair Revivo attacked the government for its lack of clear action to fight the violence and criminal gangs that plague the minority, which represents just over 21 percent of the total population.

“The State of Israel decided to implement US President Donald Trump’s plan, but only improved: to reduce the Arab-Israeli population,” he denounced ironically on the social media platform X, just as he proposed to expel the Palestinian population from Gaza Strip, an approach that sparked harsh criticism in the Middle East and around the world.

Instead of transferring them, which is a huge headache, we allow them to kill each other, the mayor said.

The descendants of Palestinians who were not expelled from their lands after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 have since then complained that they are treated as second-class citizens.

A survey conducted in March 2022 revealed that 94 percent of Arabs living in Israel had at some point experienced racism and discrimination from the Jewish majority.

Many community leaders blame the police for ignoring and even tolerating powerful criminal organizations.

For its part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government attributes the rise in crime to flourishing organized crime and the proliferation of weapons on the streets.

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