Representatives of Palestinian citizens of Israel, including mayors, members of the Knesset, and rights groups, have rejected the participation of the Shin Bet intelligence agency in police operations to combat crimes in the Arab communities, The Middle East Monitor reported.
This comes after reports that Shin Bet and the Israeli army would be allocated a limited role in combating the rising crime rates among the Palestinian citizens of Israel, MEMO noted.
The decision to enlist the Shin Bet in combatting a civil issue can fly by quietly for most Israelis, who want to see the Arab minority restrained. But for Arabs, the Shin Bet is already ever-present anyway, Jack Khoury https://t.co/1jTuLLrGyz
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) October 4, 2021
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office announced on Sunday that they will join efforts to deal with illegal weapons in the Arab community.
Quds News Network reported that the Arab community decided to reject Shin Bet’s involvement due to its torture of thousands of Palestinians.
The committee of Arab mayors in Israel, according to Haaretz, called the Shin Bet and military participation “a bad decision, which results from viewing the Arab population as a security threat rather than Israeli citizens with equal rights who are in a situation of distress.”
Arab Israelis deserve the same protection from violence as any other citizen.
Activist and organiser Maisam Jaljuli explains how negligent under policing in Arab Israeli communities in Israel leads to high crime rate and tragically preventable deaths. pic.twitter.com/d9icKjYSLj— New Israel Fund UK (@newisraelfunduk) August 24, 2020
In a statement, the Legal Center for the Right of Arab Minority in Israel (Adalah) said that “the decision to allow covert activity of unknown nature and gravity poses a further danger to the basic rights of Palestinian citizens, who are already systematically targeted and oppressed by the police today.”
Palestinian citizens, who make up 20 percent of the population in Israel, believe that Israeli occupation authorities are purposely ignoring rising crime rates in their community, MEMO highlighted.
Since the start of 2021, about 100 Arabs have been killed, with protests being held to urge the government to act.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
