Less than one and a half months into the start of the year, 30 Arab Israelis have been murdered, raising serious concerns about security in Israel’s Arab sector and worries that the violence could spread more widely.
“The state has returned to its regular routine, and so have the crime families,” said Sheik Kamal Rian, a senior figure in the Islamic Movement in Israel and head of the Aman Center, a Palestinian think tank that focuses on improving Arab society
Rian established the center in an attempt to combat crime and violence in Arab Israeli society, following the murder of his son Moa’az in 2009.
He warned that in the last 15 years, murders in Arab society have risen from the dozens to the hundreds, and that number is only rising. “Today, we count hundreds of victims and in a few years it will be thousands, and then they will not just be Arabs,” he said.
“I don't like what I do at the age of 67,” Rian told Davar. “I’ve thought about closing the Aman Center, but the alternative is worse. There is fear, but we don’t have the privilege to throw up our hands. … It's a matter of survival.”
He called on Jewish society to make more of an effort to respond to the crisis. “We need a change of values. They should think of someone murdered in [the Arab village of] Kafr Bara as they would someone murdered in [the Jewish town of] Kfar Saba,” he said.
Rian explained that Arab Israelis are murdered at a rate of 125 per million citizens, significantly higher than the rate for Jewish Israelis of 6 per million citizens. “That's 20 times more, and they are silent,” he said. “Where is the conscience? It's enough for us to feel that you are fighting to help me. That's what's needed. That's very important. Everyone must look for the solution.”
The sheik contends that Arab crime families are not comparable to those within Jewish society. “Here, [crime] has become a profitable industry … so much so that they have more money and weapons than the police, and more power and technology than the authorities,” he said. “They are the judges and the executioners. They create a problem, conduct a mediation, and charge a fee for it. … This is a takeover that has hijacked Arab society.”
In his view, Arab society must commit to the struggle against crime, and free its citizens from crime families’ grips. These families kill and terrorize Arab civilians, have more “soldiers” than the local police, and have an estimated collective wealth of 109 billion shekels ($30.5 billion). But according to the Sheik Rian, Israel has been fighting the crime networks using the same old strategies that haven’t worked yet.
“Until the state brings new methods, the problem will not be solved,” he said. “The murders will continue, and the mistrust and chaos will grow.”
Money Withheld From Local Arab Authorities
According to a 2024 report by the Abraham Initiative, a nonprofit devoted to promoting equality among Israel’s Arab and Jewish citizens, budget cuts to Arab society are a significant factor in the escalating violence.
Rian echoed these concerns, decrying the lack of state funding for local Arab authorities. While concerns that government funding will simply land in crime families’ pockets are legitimate, Rian insists that an alternative must be found which does not harm the local authorities. Simply slashing funding is, in his eyes, blatant racism.
“They are weakening the authorities and strengthening the crime families. … This decision does not come from a desire to protect Arab society,” he said.
According to the sheik, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett’s coalition government of 2021-2022 mobilized effective plans to combat violence in Arab society, and a steady decrease was seen in the cases of murder that year. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return in December 2022 with the most extreme right-wing Knesset in Israeli history overturned this progress.
Only the State Can Deal With the Crime Families
“I do not think we are exempt from responsibility,” Rian said. “I have criticisms of the Arab leadership. We have problems in our families and in our schools. Some say they stem from racist policies, but it is on us to participate in the struggle against violence. That is our responsibility.
“But we cannot deal with the crime families, that is a matter for the state,” he continued.
According to the Aman Center’s statistics, 239 Israeli Arabs were murdered in 2024. This followed 247 murders in 2023. Those numbers are almost double the rates of the previous few years.
The Youth Are Especially Vulnerable
“Someone is murdered every 28 hours in Arab society. You don’t need to be especially smart to guess what happens to the young people who don’t sleep at night because of the gunfire,” Rian continued. “I look at my grandchildren. When they hear gunfire, I can see the fear in their eyes. I am always available to them, I take them to after-school activities, sit with them, and shield them. I know the fear, but not everyone can give this kind of support. If it is not dealt with holistically, it will be bad for everyone. If it is bad in Jaljulia [an Arab town in Israel’s center], it will be bad in Kfar Saba.”
The social and economic situation of Arab society certainly does not help the violence issue. Forty percent of Arab young people between the ages of 17 and 35 do not work or study. Thus the crime families have a surplus of potential “soldiers.”
“Every young man who looks at his friend and sees that he has a BMW, gun, and monthly salary—where will he go? To university? Eighty percent of our higher education students are girls,” Rian explained. “Where are the boys? Young men are meat for the crime families. We need to take drastic steps, I don't know what, to stop the bleeding.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Hannah Blount.
