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Erdan holds police responsible for failure to fight crime in Arab society

October 11, 2019 at 1:55 am

Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan [Quds News Network/Facebook]

Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan tried, Thursday, to distance himself from the Ministry’s failure to deal with the increasing rate of crime in Arab society. He claimed that the Israeli police department, under his command, rejected his request to strengthen police forces in Arab towns. Erdan’s statements came hours before he met with deputies from the Joint List later in the day, to discuss the way the vehicles participating in a protest convoy toward Jerusalem were handled.

“There was a discussion with the police leadership about the reinforcement of forces in the Arab society, and I pushed in this direction. However, the police (and former Inspector General of Police, Roni Alsheikh) opposed my suggestion,” Erdan told Israeli public radio.

Erdan claimed that “all the increases in the budget of the Department of Homeland Security, in recent years, were invested in favour of the establishment of police stations and the transfer of police personnel in Arab towns.” He added that his intentions were sincere in this regard. But, Erdan is known for his racist positions, as he expressed extreme racism stances, last Monday, insisting that the “Arab society is a very, very violent society, I repeated this a thousand times. This is related to the fact that in their culture, conflicts end with knives’ fights rather than in courts. In Arab society, a mother can agree that her son should kill her daughter.”

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Erdan continued: “It is true that the Israeli governments are centrally responsible for the creation of a substantial problem and the lack of law enforcement. There are no police stations inside Arab towns; however, when 85 per cent of unlawful shootings in Israel takes place in the Arab areas, then we certainly should talk about a social phenomenon that we should fight together.”

“The police forces are on the alert. There was a disagreement between the former Inspector General and me, and we still have the same differences, as I wanted, despite the cuts, to have a lot of policemen moved from active stations to the Arab towns, as part of a contingency plan,” he asserted.