Video: Murder scene of a 30-year-old man on Neve Sha'anan Street in Tel Aviv (Walla system!)
Israel's High Court of Justice ruled Monday that the state must update on its actions over the next six months regarding the handling of crime in Tel Aviv's Neve Sha'anan neighborhood by mid-December. This was at the end of a hearing on a petition filed by neighborhood residents against National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the police for what they claimed was ongoing and deliberate neglect of the neighborhood.
"It is evident that after the petition was filed, there was an improvement in the handling of the matter that is the subject of the petition, but the necessary work is still extensive and complex," wrote Justices Noam Sohlberg, Yael Willner and David Mintz. "The trend of promoting and improving care must continue."
During the hearing, the justices criticized the state's conduct. "It's a matter of police policy, giving less attention to the neighborhood than a street next door," Willner said. "There is an explicit admission that nothing was done in this place until the petition was filed. What is described in the petition is complete chaos. You don't expect it to be the same as another neighborhood, but you read the data and say to yourself 30 brothels in the neighborhood? This is not normal. And it's been like that for years, not yesterday."
Neve Sha'anan, January (Photo: official website, headquarters of the struggle of the residents of Neve Sha'anan)
Willner further admonished the state's representatives later in the discussion. "Why assume in advance that it is impossible to reach a perfect solution, why is this the 'state of mind'? Why assume that the IDF is capable and we are not?" the judge raged. "It's not that there are any illusions that the army can go home, but it's doing its mission properly. It's a complex and difficult situation, it doesn't mean you can't do nothing."
Ahead of the hearing, disagreements arose between Ben-Gvir and Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara. The legal counsel's opinion on the petition was to request that it be dismissed outright, while the Minister of National Security wanted to leave it to the court's consideration.
Ben-Gvir asked to submit a separate response - and was refused. In the preliminary response submitted on behalf of the state, the minister said that he believes that "offenses in the field of drugs and prostitution were not sufficiently enforced by the Tel Aviv District by the police in the area that is the subject of the petition. The minister will instruct the police to step up enforcement actions, and he intends to monitor and supervise the handling of the matter."
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