Violence in Arab society passes breaking point

• Date: 29 December 2020
• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Published date: 29 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Let's repeat. Under police protection. Along Highway 6.

This shouldn't be happening in Israel in 2020. But it is indicative of the lawlessness that is plaguing the Arab sector in Israel society and the inability or lack of effort by the Israel Police to get to the root of the problem. Arab leaders claim the police have long turned a blind eye to the crime-riddled cities, towns and neighborhoods where gangs rule and where illegal weapons run rampant.

According to one estimation by a Jaffa imam, there are some 450,000 illegal firearms sprinkled throughout the Arab sector.

But despite the ongoing reports of violence, shootings and murders, Monday's incident was starkly different in its abandon and clear lack of concern about the deterrent capabilities of the police.

The police were accompanying a convoy of cars belonging to the Abu Salek family from Lod on their way to Kafr Kasem in the North. They are known by police and suspected to be involved in crime operations, working with another area family gang. The Abu Salek family members had left the city after the body of 60-year-old Yousef Azberga, a member of a rival crime family, was found overnight Sunday.

Quentin Tarantino might have had difficulty conjuring up a plot line like that for one of his over-the-top crime-centric cinematic epics.

But instead of on the silver screen, these events unfolded on one of Israel's most traveled highways.

As the convoy sped along Highway 6, in a convoluted series of moves, aggressors were able to penetrate the convoy and shoot at the car in which the Abu Saleks were driving. Two people were killed. Police later arrested two young men from Lod in connection with the shooting.

The incident caused shock waves throughout the country. Mansour Abbas, deputy speaker of the Knesset and head of the Committee on Eradicating Crime in Arab Society, said the shooting has changed all norms regarding the mounting violence.

"The situation has been getting worse for years, and today all the parameters broke new records," he told KAN TV, adding that there are some 320 family vs family conflicts currently at play in Arab Israeli society...