Official police data reveal what the field has long understood: 82% of cases opened in 2021 for committing firearms and firearms offenses in the State of Israel were committed by Arab Israeli citizens in Arab localities.
This picture emerges from official police data published here for the first time, and shows the depth of the problem of violence that has existed in recent years in Arab society.
This, it will be recalled, while the share of Arab residents of Israel is less than 20% of the total population.
According to the data, in the years 2020-2021, 3,630 cases were opened for weapons offenses, 2,966 cases of which were opened against Arab citizens.
However, despite the high number of cases, the police and the prosecutor's office find it difficult to file indictments: only 119 of the weapons offenses opened against Arabs have reached an indictment (4.1%).
This is in contrast to the filing of indictments in 58 of the weapons offenses cases opened against Jews, which constitute only 9.7% of all cases.
Pistols seized by the police in the Arab sector, Photo: Michael Giladi Ginny
The data reveal that weapons offenses are one of the main problems faced by the police officers who serve in the police stations located within the various Arab localities.
For example, in the Hof district in the years 2020-2021, 1,615 cases involving weapons offenses were opened - 80% of them at stations located in localities in the triangular area: Umm al-Fahm, Baqa al-Gharbiya, Jisr a-Zarqa and Wadi Ara.
Many bags "on hold"
Of the thousands of cases opened in the past two years on suspicion of weapons offenses, 43% have already been shelved or are in the process of being closed, 35% are awaiting a prosecution decision, 12% are still under police investigation, and only 8% have already reached a judicial decision.
All other bags are under the category with the not-quite-binding name: "Waiting."
Lavi, chairman of the Lavi organization, Adv. Avichai Boaron: "The data tell the true and sad story. Violent and shooting offenses committed by Arab criminals are on a huge and disproportionate scale."
Adv. Avichai Boaron, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
According to Advocate Boaron, "This rampant anarchy stems first and foremost from an unwillingness to actually enforce Israeli law on Arab society in Israel.
"Weapons of such magnitude among Arab society in Israel are not only of a purely criminal aspect, but are a serious security failure that is emerging before our eyes, since these weapons are expected to be directed at Jews sooner or later."
A senior police official said in response to the police's war on rising crime in the sector: "The criminal organizations in Arab society have realized this year that their celebration is over. We are taking everything from luxury vehicles and cash obtained in crime - and weapons."
It should be emphasized that as part of Operation Safe Track to eradicate crime in Arab society, launched in October 2021, the police recorded a series of successes, including a 40% reduction in the number of shootings within four months and a 138% increase in the number of indictments filed in the Arab sector. .
Among the hundreds of weapons seized in the operation: 63 grenades, 41 pistols, 17 Airsoft weapons, 28 rifles, 22 improvised submachine guns (Carlo), 15 fireworks hives, 12 explosive devices and even a few mortar shells.
Laboratories for the manufacture of weapons and their parts were also discovered.
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