Israeli Arab Homicide Wave Continues With Murder in the Galilee

Jerusalem, 11 December, 2023 (TPS) -- The Israeli Police are investigating the murder of an Arab man in the Galilee village of Rama on Monday morning.

A second victim was hospitalized in serious condition at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

According to the Abraham Initiative, a Jewish-Arab organization which promotes Arab integration into Israel society, 223 Arab-Israelis have been killed in criminal violence since the beginning of 2023.

For comparison, 116 Arab-Israelis were murdered in 2022.

This year’s spike in violence is attributed to organized crime groups fighting turf battles and trying to eliminate rivals. Arab criminal organizations have been involved in extortion, money laundering, trafficking in weapons, drugs and women.

Local leaders have called on the government to take action.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported giving the Shin Bet security agency a more active role in fighting the rising crime, but this suggestion was opposed by both Arab leaders and Shin Bet officials.

Although there has been a drop in Arab sector crime during the two months since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacres and the war in Gaza, the wave of killings has slowed, but not abated.

In November, Israeli security forces seized 137 guns in the largest weapons smuggling bust from Jordan. Police believe the weapons were destined for Arab criminal groups.