Crime in the Palestinian Community

In the fourth episode of the “Forty-Eight” podcast, we hosted researcher Habib Mahoul from the Mada Research Institute to discuss the phenomenon of crime within the Palestinian community in Israel. Over the past two decades, crime in this community has grown significantly, with the number of murders rising substantially. Crime has become the primary issue, second only to the Gaza conflict, that concerns the Palestinian public. In the past two decade more the Palestinian community witnessed more the one thousand homicides more than 240 only last year and the phenomenon has spread to every Arab locality within Israel.

In the first part of the episode, Habib provided an overview of the scale of the issue in comparison to the Jewish community in Israel and globally. We then focused on his research question for his master’s thesis, which examined government policies on opening more police stations in Arab towns. What are the roles of these stations? What motivated the policy behind their establishment? And why has crime continued to increase in the Palestinian community despite the opening of these police stations?

Additionally, we addressed whether this is a social phenomenon akin to those experienced by other marginalized groups or a political phenomenon resulting from Israel’s relationship with the Palestinian people. And is the welfare of its Palestinian citizens secondary to Israel’s security interests?

We concluded the conversation with a forward-looking perspective, considering the severe economic crisis in Israel, the unprecedented distribution of weapons to the Jewish community since the onset of the conflict, and the background of incitement against Palestinians by Israeli ministers and decision-makers.