Amro Abu Jabareen, 26, backs up a dead end amidst rifle fire. He ends up bumping into a car and running away on foot. Another vehicle chases him and more gusts are heard.
Security camera footage of the Israeli town of Umm Al-Fahm, which looks like something taken from an action film, doesn’t show the exact moment of the murder, but Jabareen entered the statistic.
He has become number 104 dead since January this year among Israel’s Arab minority. The murder took place at 6:00 am (local time) on the 20th, the day after another homicide in the same city, that of Khalil Ja’u, 25, who was shot on his way out to work.
With these numbers, 2021 is on the way to becoming the bloodiest year in a wave of violent killings among the Israeli Arab minority, which began at least five years ago.
Data compiled by the newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth show that, in 2015, out of a universe of 111 crimes of this type, 58 victimized people of Arab origin (52%).
The proportion continued on an upward trajectory until last year, when this group represented 78% of those killed in 138 violent homicides committed in Israel. In 2021, up to October 1st, there had been 130 crimes of this kind, with Arab-Israelis accounting for 77% of the victims.
This is not, however, a civil war between the Jewish majority (75% of the population) and the Arab minority (21%), nor are there any soldiers or police involved in the attacks. Violence is almost always the result of fights between Arab-Israeli families or disputes related to local gangs, increasingly equipped with illegal weapons smuggled or stolen from military bases.
Victims are usually known criminals or family members. But sometimes just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The situation is catastrophic,” says Maisam Jaljuli, a political activist and co-founder of the NGO Sikkuy (chance, in Hebrew). “What you hear on the news is just the tip of the iceberg. How many people are injured every day, how many houses are shot, how many cars are set on fire? Nobody counts that.”
Jaljuli says the climate in his hometown of Tira (30 km from Tel Aviv) is one of fear. “Children hear shots every day and they even know the difference between pistols and rifles. Our young people are traumatized.”
Most of Israel’s Arabs (Israeli citizens or Palestinians with residents’ permits) live in their own villages, usually on the outskirts or in mixed cities such as Haifa, Acre and Jerusalem.
For the activist, the explosion of crime is the result of the neglect of Israeli governments in relation to these places, which have become what she calls a kind of “old west”, with gangs acting as a parallel power.
Many are asking for more police presence, despite their distrust of authorities. A survey by the Walla website in December 2020 showed that only 17% of Israeli Arabs said they trusted the police and that just over 60% did not feel safe.
For activists, the problem will only be resolved when Israel faces deeper issues, such as the lack of investment in infrastructure, education and employment in Arab cities — in addition to prejudice.
The feeling among Arabs in Israel is that their lives are worth less than those of Jews. The hashtag #arablivesmatter (Arab lives matter) exploded on networks in September to express frustration at the helplessness and inaction of local police, as well as the apparent apathy of the country’s Jews.
“[Isso é fruto de] dozens of years of negligence, neglect and fear of facing the heart of the problem, as well as the prevailing assumption that ‘as long as they kill each other, it’s their problem,'” summed up Israel’s Public Security Minister Omer Barlev , on twitter.
But he did not fail to point to Arab leadership. “Let’s put the cards on the table: it’s not just criminal families, it’s a widespread phenomenon led by extremists who have taken control of the Arab streets and which manifests itself, among other things, in illegal weapons.”
A month ago, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett launched a national plan to combat the phenomenon and appointed a new police department to deal with the issue, displacing two units of the border police. “Who lives in Taybe [cidade árabe] deserves the same physical security as those living in Kfar Saba [cidade judaica]”, he said.
Last week, Deputy Homeland Security Minister Yoav Segalovich presented yet another plan to improve the situation in just six months, using deterrence and harsher punishment.
As a new “projector” (kind of tsar) in the fight against violence in the Arab-Israeli segment, he plans to send more police to Arab cities and, in parallel, monitor the flow of money from the gangs and clans involved.
“I want to do something fast, a government operation involving various ministries and agencies,” Segalovich, a former police officer who headed the Police Intelligence and Investigations Division, explained to Kan Bet radio.
“I’m not unaware that the level of public trust in institutions is low, but we have to find solutions. People are dying.”
One of the measures already approved is the release of search and seizure warrants without the need for judicial authorization in cases of “reasonable suspicion” of illegal weapons possession, which has generated criticism from human rights groups.
“The decision indicates treating Arab citizens as threats to the country’s security, with hostile and unequal treatment,” the NGO Adalah said in a statement. “The tendency to treat them as foreign enemies continues.”
The Army will not be involved, as it only deals with cross-border dangers. But the Israel Security Agency (also known as Shabak or Shin Bet) could compose the operation if triggered — with methods used in the conflict with the Palestinians, which involve, among others, tougher interrogations and the enlistment of informants.
For the parliamentarian Esawi Frej, of the left-wing Meretz party, the situation is too serious to expect a thorough treatment, which could last for years. “The house is on fire. Life is more important than human rights right now,” Israel’s parliament said at a Knesset debate.
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