How Israel’s crackdown on Palestinian citizens created the crime epidemic now ravaging them
A protest of Palestinian citizens of Israel in Haifa condemning police and government inaction regarding the epidemic of crime in the Arab community, 31 August 2023
Razi Nabulse writes in Mondoweiss on 24 July 2026 :
In mid-July, the Israeli government gave its final approval to allocate more than half a billion shekels to establish a special unit within Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, with the aim of integrating it into efforts to combat organized crime among Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship.
In doing so, the government has effectively transformed what should be a simple matter of criminal law enforcement — which falls under the responsibility of the police — into a national security issue requiring the intervention of the same intelligence agency that forms the security backbone of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This shift has taken place without any serious examination of why the police have failed to address the problem of endemic crime and intra-Palestinian violence, which has reached catastrophic levels among Palestinian citizens of Israel over the past several years.
Since the beginning of the year and through June 28, 131 people have been killed, alongside hundreds more injured, due to organized crime in the communities of Palestinians who live inside “the 1948 territories” — the term Palestinians use to denote Israel proper, since it is the land where Israel established its state after the 1948 Nakba.
The decision to involve the Shin Bet became the subject of debate among Palestinian citizens of Israel, commonly referred to as “the ’48 Arabs,” or “the ‘48 Palestinians.” Most Arab political parties and civil society organizations overwhelmingly opposed the move due to the political risks posed by the security agency’s involvement in a strictly civilian matter. But some voices also supported and welcomed the decision.