The head of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al alliance has been assigned a security detail after criminal groups issued death threats against him for denouncing rampant criminal violence in Arab communities, he revealed Saturday.
“Our demonstrations have started to bother the criminal organizations. The formula is clear — it’s either our community or the criminal groups, and we will defeat them,” MK Aymad Odeh told Channel 12 news.
Odeh said he was informed of the threats on his life by the Knesset Guard and will now be closely guarded by security.
“I again appeal to law enforcement and the government: Eradicate crime in Arab society because you are not doing enough,” the lawmaker added.
Hadash-Ta’al and fellow opposition Islamist Ra’am party have lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt measures aimed at addressing the violent crime in Arab towns, as the 2023 homicide toll shatters the record figures set the past few years.
“Criminal organizations in Arab society received a green light from the government to run wild and murder, and they now feel comfortable to threaten Knesset members trying to stop them,” Odeh’s Hadash party charged Saturday in a statement.
“Only a country that does not respect itself is capable of ignoring a situation in which elected officials are threatened and even murdered by criminals,” the party added.
The government faced growing criticism the past week for its response to the deadly crime spike after two local politicians were killed in as many days, including one shot dead in a quadruple homicide in the northern town of Abu Snan.
Police at the scene of a mass shooting in Abu Snan, August 22, 2023. (Shir Torem/Flash90)
On Friday, police arrested two more suspects over the shooting in Abu Snan, which was one of the deadliest single acts of criminal violence this year and came two months after five people were killed in a mass shooting at a car wash in Yafa an-Naseriyye.
According to the Abraham Initiatives anti-violence advocacy group, 159 members of Israel’s Arab community have been killed since the start of the year, mostly in shootings. During the same time frame last year, 68 were killed.
The killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years. Many community leaders blame the police, whom they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.
