The severity of violence in Israel’s Arab community has taken a toll even on the community’s youngest members. According to a report presented to the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child on Monday, ten Arab-Israel children were killed last year. Experts blame this trend on underpolicing and on the proliferation of crime in Israel-Arab society.
According to the report, 174 Israeli children were hospitalized for gunshot wounds between 2020 and 2023, 159 of whom, or 91%, were Arab. That statistic is especially striking since Arabs make up only about 21% of the Israeli population.
Rayan Kais Badarna, an Arab-Israeli 12th grader from Jaffa who serves as spokesperson for the national student council, beseeched the Knesset to take the issue seriously. “Illegal weapons alter a child’s heart and soul,” she said. “A child who lives near a weapon lives in fear, and thinks all the time about the danger. Children do not need to be nervous about one day being on the receiving end of a bullet. When a child sees weapons around them all the time, they learn violence as a solution. They learn that force is a way to deal with pain.”
Mustafa Qadurah, a 12th grader from the Arab town of Nahf, added, “Weapons don’t just threaten the personal safety of the child, they affect their future.”
Beterem, an Israeli organization promoting child safety, more than half of children injured by gun violence between 2008 and 2023 were injured incidentally by a nearby violent altercation. Around one-fifth of the children injured were playing with weapons, 17% were injured by weapons issued by the military or by old munitions, 6% were injured by celebratory gunfire such as at a wedding, and 1% were suspected to be attempting suicide.
“The damage this has caused to the children is multidimensional,” Eli Dallal of the Likud party, chair of the Committee for the Rights of the Child, said. “They live in perpetual fear, exposed to violence daily, and they experience trauma that will affect their entire lives. This feeling of lack of basic security affects every aspect of their lives — it affects their studies, it affects their ability to develop social relationships, it affects their sense of safety.”
Rawyah Handaqlu, spokesperson for an emergency forum formed to address violence in the Arab community, estimated that around 1,750 Arab-Israeli children have lost a parent to gun violence. Saed Tali, manager of the domestic violence branch in the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, added, “There are quite a few children who witnessed murders, which of course adds to the trauma.”
Representatives from the Ministry of National Security and the police described systems meant to prevent gun violence in Arab society and respond to its effects on children, but Arab politicians said that the police are rarely seen in Arab communities.
“I know of entire families who say that no one contacted them, no one informed them for which services they are eligible, especially in connection with treating and accessing aid for children,” Aida Touma-Suleiman, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker from the Hadash party, said.
In 2021, the government started an initiative meant to tackle crime and violence in Arab society. But during the committee meeting, Yoav Segalovich of Yesh Atid, former deputy minister of internal security who had responsibility for combating violence in the Arab community, accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of acting against the initiative. Ben-Gvir, a far-right nationalist, has been accused of using his position to oppress Israel’s Arab population, including through demolitions of Bedouin villages and crackdowns on Arabs’ rights to free expression.
Committee Chair Dallal expressed his disappointment in the lack of response to the crisis. “Each day that passes without real action is a day in which we abandon the future of these children and the Arab community as a whole,” he said. “We cannot continue like this. I call upon all of us to see the issue as the top national priority.”
Dallal emphasized the basic Jewish and Muslim principle of protecting life above all else. “Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, secure, and empowering environment,” he said. “This is not just a right—this is our obligation as a society to ensure that they have this. I expect clear, actionable decisions, with defined timelines and practical action plans.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Tzivia Gross.
