The Israeli Occupation’s Perpetuation of Crime Among ‘48-Palestinians: Gang Control and Investigation Negligence

In the wake of the Uprising of Dignity involving Palestinians in the occupied territories of 1948, who joined forces with Gaza and the West Bank under the banner of Unity of Fields Battle, violent clashes have erupted between them, Israeli Occupation police, and settlers. These escalating confrontations have sparked concerns as Israeli authorities consider punitive measures.

The Israeli Occupation has not only ignored the security of Palestinian towns in the occupied interior despite their Israeli citizenship, neglected to investigate crimes committed against them, and cooperated with criminal organizations among them, but it has also entrusted their security file to the extremist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

It is worth noting that Ben-Gvir, a prominent right-wing politician in “Israel,” is known for his hostility toward Palestinians residing in the occupied territories. He is known for disseminating videos in which he can be seen assaulting Palestinians and damaging their businesses.

These actions are often carried out in collaboration with members of his right-wing religious fascist faction.

On June 8, 2023, five Palestinians from the 1948 occupied territories were killed in a shooting incident in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye in the occupied interior during a series of violent crimes. Palestinian residents protested against what they called “the collusion of the Israeli Occupation police.”

They affirmed that large gangs have been committing violent crimes and killings for years, with crime spreading against Arabs in the interior, but the Israeli Occupation only concerns itself with Jewish settlers.

They said the irony is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Ben-Gvir and the intelligence agency Shin Bet, not the police, the responsibility for the security of Palestinians in the 1948 occupied territories. This indicates malicious plans like treating them as “terrorists.”

Palestinians protested on June 11, 2023, against the Israeli government’s neglect of internal security and failure to apprehend murderers in the Arab community. They raised the slogan “Arab blood is not cheap.”

The number of violence and crime victims in the occupied Palestinian interior reached 102 since the beginning of 2023, an unprecedented number in the history of the Israeli Occupation.

It should be noted that the number of Palestinians in the 1948 territories exceeds two million, suffering from policies of racial discrimination, neglect, and poverty at all levels and in all areas.

Since the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, approximately 1,700 Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship have been killed, amid the chaos of weapons, the negligence of the Israeli Occupation, and the collusion of the police with organized crime syndicates that dominate and control the lives of Palestinians in the 1948 territories.

 

Ben-Gvir’s Role

Before becoming the second most important minister in the current Israeli government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Kahane movement, used to collaborate with settler groups in targeting Palestinian shops and homes. Videos exposing his actions were widely circulated.

Therefore, it was ironic that Itamar Ben-Gvir took charge of the security file, including the security of Palestinian citizens of the 1948 territories, whom he repeatedly expressed his intention to kill.

This raised questions about what he would do when he becomes the minister responsible for security.

He was a supporter of the Israeli–American killer Baruch Goldstein, who opened fire in 1994 with a machine gun on Muslims during dawn prayers in Ramadan in Hebron, resulting in the martyrdom of 29 worshipers. At that time, he welcomed the actions of his terrorist comrade.

Ben-Gvir has faced 53 charges from the Israeli police for engaging in terrorism against Palestinians before becoming the Minister of National Security.

Therefore, since assuming office in December 2022, he has worked against the Arab community in the occupied state, exploiting his position.

In this context, he implemented three steps to achieve this purpose against the Palestinian population: firstly, the establishment of a National Guard to suppress them, and secondly, involving the Shin Bet (General Security Agency), which suggests treating Palestinian citizens of the 1948 territories as “terrorists” like those in Gaza and the West Bank.

The third step was the demand for powers (through a bill presented to the Knesset - the parliament - on June 13, 2023) to issue administrative detention orders that allow the detention of any person for six months without a judicial order, under the guise of combating crime in the Arab community in “Israel.”

This means that he is preparing to wage war against the '48-Palestinians, instead of combating the rampant crime within their ranks, in his capacity as the Minister of National Security.

He seeks to exploit the criminal gangs spread in the Arab community and cooperate with the Israeli Occupation to suppress them as well.

His party, Otzma Yehudit (the Jewish Power), achieved a significant gain when he became the Minister of Security, handing over to him the responsibility for a militia force called the National Guard, which 48-Palestinians and analysts say is primarily directed at suppressing them.

Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, deputy head of the “Islamic Movement in Israel/Occupied Palestine ‘48,” previously stated that Ben-Gvir would use these forces and give them orders to carry out his hatred against Palestinians.

Ben-Gvir also asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the involvement of the Shin Bet in investigations with '48-Palestinians, in accordance with the coalition agreement.

Netanyahu finally approved his request on June 11, 2023, under the pretext of “immediately involving the Shin Bet in the war against criminal organizations” and confronting assassinations within the Arab community.

Palestinians of the occupied ’48 territories, in general, reject the involvement of the Shin Bet in criminal cases, as do many human rights organizations, due to the threat it poses to privacy and freedoms.

The Shin Bet believes that its involvement in criminal cases may jeopardize its work in the security aspects and expose its tools and methods in the security and operational contexts it carries out against Palestinians and others.

One of the reasons opposing the involvement of the Shin Bet in crime cases is what was mentioned in a letter addressed by the Adalah legal center to Netanyahu and the Inspector General of the Israeli Police, Yaakov Shabtai, regarding the targeting of Arabs.

They stated that involving the Shin Bet indicates a security, hostile, and unequal position by the Israeli authorities toward Arabs. It is a racist decision that falls under the category of racial profiling and creates two systems for law enforcement, one in Arab towns toward Arab citizens and another in Jewish towns.

Adalah added in the letter in October 2021 that the Shin Bet treats Arab citizens as enemies.

According to the Times of Israel newspaper on June 11, 2023, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, objected to involving the Shin Bet in crime cases, while Ben-Gvir and Shabtai emphasized the need for immediate action.

The Israeli Attorney General stated that changing the Shin Bet law would harm democracy, while Ben-Gvir commented: “Either we change the law and say that the Shin Bet will deal with criminal organizations, or we will do it through temporary provisions.”

The Shin Bet is part of the Israeli security apparatus, but its tools and methods used during the interrogation of detainees are subject to criticism and condemnation from human rights organizations because they involve intelligence techniques that include secret torture; it appears that these methods are intended to be used against Arabs.

In another step seen by Arab party leaders in “Israel” as an evasion of addressing the core issue, Member of Knesset Zvika Fogel, from the Ben-Gvir party, submitted a bill to the Knesset that grants him extensive powers.

The authorities sought by Ben-Gvir’s bill include issuing administrative detention orders and imposing restrictions on the movement of individuals whom he perceives as a threat to public security.

The bill also authorizes him to issue orders preventing them from leaving the occupied territory and confiscating their passports.

The extremist minister would have the authority to compel individuals to appear before a police station on specified dates, inform him of someone’s intention to enter or leave a certain area, and to restrict their access to certain services and internet communications.

This is reminiscent of the emergency laws imposed by the British mandate authorities on Palestine prior to 1948.

Palestinians argue that Ben-Gvir’s attempt to increase his powers is aimed at suppressing Arabs in “Israel” who are already suffering from the escalating activities of organized crime syndicates and settler extremist organizations supported by Ben-Gvir himself.

They see the proposal for administrative detention orders, similar to the involvement of the Shin Bet in police investigations into acts of violence, as a mere deception to evade their responsibility in finding real solutions to the crimes within the Arab community.

 

Official Complicity

“Israel” benefits from chaos, bloodshed, and the spread of terror within the occupied Arab community, diverting their attention with internal issues and conflicts, fueling anxiety, fear, and a lack of personal security.

The Israeli Occupation state gambles that tightening control over the Arab community will push its members to focus on personal security and individual safety, overshadowing national concerns such as countering plans of demolition, displacement, and the division of al-Aqsa Mosque.

There is talk among the Palestinian citizens of “Israel” regarding seven major criminal gangs operating in Arab towns. These gangs are involved in various illegal activities such as extortion, terrorism, controlling local authorities’ tenders, and engaging in the trade of prohibited items, ranging from weapons to drugs.

They affirm that these gangs have connections with the Israeli authorities for security and economic purposes and are responsible for the increasing cases of mass killings within the Arab community.

There are suspicions of the involvement of the Israeli Occupation in this bloodshed through these organizations, as well as its negligence in curbing violence and crime that increasingly affect innocent people.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on June 13, 2023, quoting former deputy Taleb el-Sana, chairman of the Crime Prevention Committee within the Monitoring Committee, saying: “The majority of leaders and members of criminal gangs are agents of Israeli intelligence, fleeing from their families and towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

He stated that neither the Israeli police nor the Israeli Shin Bet would fight the criminal organizations, as they are collaborators and informants for them.

The Hebrew Channel 12 also reported in July 2021, citing a senior police source, saying: “These criminals receive support from the Shin Bet because they cooperate and provide information to them.”

The channel’s police affairs correspondent, Moshe Nussbaum, mentioned that a high-level source in the Israeli police confirmed to him that “the criminals leading serious criminal operations in the Arab community are mostly collaborators with the Shin Bet.”

In this case, the hands of the Israeli police are tied, as they cannot deal with these collaborators who enjoy immunity, said Moshe Nussbaum on June 12, 2023.

Shim’on Shiffer, a political analyst at the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that local criminal gangs have spread like cancer cells in Arab towns, using intimidation and gunfire to terrorize the residents and act as they please, as if they were a state within a state, amidst the Israeli police’s negligence.

On May 30, 2023, the Israeli channel Kan 11 revealed a complaint filed by two officials in the Israeli police to the Attorney General, Amit Aisman, regarding suspicions of the involvement of two deputies in leaking “sensitive information” from ongoing investigations to dangerous criminal organizations, including Arab ones.

When killings and crimes occur within the Arab community, the Israeli police often cite resource constraints and limited capabilities to reach the criminals within the Palestinian territory.

However, a correspondent for The New Arab newspaper in Haifa stated on June 10, 2023, that this argument is refuted by the fact that the Israeli police act with full force alongside other Zionist agencies when it comes to confronting the uprising of the 1948 Palestinians against the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

He explained that during the Uprising of Dignity events in May 2021, when all Palestinians in the 1948 territories, West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza mobilized against the Judaization of al-Aqsa, the Israeli police employed their full range of capabilities, including advanced technology, to apprehend Arab youths and ensure their prosecution in the court of law.

Arrests continue even after two years have passed since the events that erupted in protest against Israeli violations in Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque.

The comparison between the success rate of the Israeli police in solving crimes in the Arab community and the rate in the Israeli community indicates that the police deliberately apply double standards in dealing with crimes.

According to Israeli statistics, the years from 2018 to 2022 witnessed approximately 732 murders in the occupied territories, with crimes in the Arab community accounting for about 70 percent of them.

Despite this, the rate of indictment filings did not exceed 29 percent, compared to 69 percent in the Israeli community.

Since the beginning of 2023, there have been 102 murders in the Arab community, of which the police have only solved 11 percent.

In 2020, they solved 35 percent, and in 2021, the investigation into crimes did not exceed 24 percent.

On the other hand, police intervention to solve crimes in the Israeli community is not less than 70 to 80 percent, according to Israeli newspapers, raising many questions about this disparity.

However, as reported by the Arab 48 website on April 4, 2023, the Israeli police succeeded in solving only 5 percent of murder cases against the Arab community during the first quarter of 2023.

This contrasts 83 percent in the Jewish community, highlighting blatant discrimination and neglect toward the Palestinians of the 1948 occupied lands.