Uzi Levy, the commander of the SJ district, recently said in closed talks that Minister of Internal Security Amar Bar-Lev does not place nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria at the top of the list, and as a result, the police are not stepping up their efforts to combat the phenomenon. Israel Today "Factors present in closed conversations in which the district commander spoke.
In the discussions, which were attended by senior IDF and defense officials, Chief of Staff Levy said he could not allocate forces to national criminal missions.
According to sources present at the hearings, Superintendent Levy further said that the targets for the SJ district approved by the Minister of Internal Security do not include nationalist crime; "The command and the chief of staff have no authority to prioritize issues to the police," a security source said, "and thus a big problem arises. The defense establishment is told that it is responsible for dealing with nationalist crime, but it has no authority to increase the number of police officers to deal with the problem."
"A big problem has arisen."
East Jerusalem policing, Photo: IPI
What was said at the hearing sounds twice as serious in light of the data from the IDF Operations Division, which reached Israel Today; according to these data, in the past year there has been a significant increase in the number of national crime incidents in Judea and Samaria.
The data also show that throughout 2019, 352 nationalist crime incidents were recorded in this sector.
A year later the number was similar - 353 events.
In 2021, however, there was a real jump in national crime, with 563 incidents recorded.
This year also added cases of agricultural corruption, attacks by security forces and friction with Palestinians.
The Israel Police stated that "we take nationalist crime incidents seriously, which receive high priority and treatment by the Nationalist Crime Party in the SJ District, while cooperating with the IDF, the GSS and the settlement." Minister Bar-Lev stated: "Homeland Security described dealing with crime and violence on the Arab streets as a top priority. This is not to say, for example, that the police should stop investigating sexual offenses in the Dan Bloc, road accidents in the Arava or, in this case, dealing with organized terrorism by extremist settlers in Samaria and Judea."
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