Arab Israelis to strike calling for greater policing

Students in the Arab-Israeli town of Umm Al-Fahm will go on strike on Sunday in an effort to highlight the increasing levels of violence and crime rocking the Palestinian community in Israel.

The Municipal Council of Students and Youth, which represents approximately 19,000 students, said it was taking action “as a result of the ongoing events for which we see no end but which have increased and been exacerbated, including cases of violence, murder and threats against residents.”

“We, students, face fear and anxiety for our safety and that of our families every day from the moment we leave the house until we return.”

It asked: “Do we agree that the top priority is to preserve life?” Hoping Sunday’s protest will force authorities to take measures to protect Arab civilians and increase policing in their neighbourhoods.

The action comes as a man was shot and killed in Umm Al-Fahm yesterday bringing the total number of Arab citizens of Israel who have been killed so far this year to 68.

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In a statement to MEMO yesterday, Arab Member of Knesset Yousef Jabareen said: “This alarming situation of continued internal violence in our community has become a troubling, daily reality for the Arab citizens, deprives them of sleep at night, eliminates any sense of personal security, and becomes a recurrent event as days go because of increasing number of firearms shooting, murder, and crime raging in the streets.”

The number of victims of such crimes, Jabareen said, “lead the Arab citizens to a sense of helplessness mixed with a lawlessness, inaction, and lack of effective response of governmental authorities to protect the most basic human right – life!”

“The Israel State Comptroller’s report and the daily reality show that police forces repeatedly fail to protect the Arab citizens.”

Rising murder rates among the Palestinian citizens of Israel have ignited a debate between police and civilians regarding the force’s negligence of Arab neighbourhoods and the practice of segregating communities within the country.

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