With 18 victims already recorded in ongoing violent crimes since the start of the year, the specter of 2025—when 252 people were killed—has once again come to haunt the Arab community in Israel, pushing it toward one of the broadest protest actions in years.
On Thursday, Arab towns declared a general strike in protest against the spread of organized crime and the absence of tangible government solutions.
This strike if fueled by years of accumulated anger. At the call of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens and the National Committee of Arab Local Authority Heads, public services were paralyzed and shops closed in dozens of towns—from the Galilee and the Triangle to the Negev—in a unified protest message asserting that crime is no longer a marginal security issue, but an existential threat that strikes at the fundamental right to life and personal safety.
At the heart of this mobilization, a political discourse emerged linking crime to the structure of existing policies. In a special interview with Alhurra, Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Hadash party said that what is taking place is “not merely a passing protest, but a day that will be recorded in the history of the Palestinian Arab public in Israel.”
She added that the strike and mass demonstrations reflect the community’s effort to defend its “right to life,” accusing the government of what she described as using criminal gangs to suppress the public “instead of cooperating with it to suppress those gangs.”
Touma-Suleiman said the strike marks “the launch of the first phase of a struggle that will not end today,” pointing to a cumulative, escalating path that will employ economic, political, and social tools until “the state feels the same paralysis that criminal gangs have imposed on our daily lives.”
According to attorney Hadeel Abu Saleh of the Adalah Legal Center, the Arab community is facing unprecedented levels of violence. In remarks to Alhurra, Abu Saleh said that “the homicide rate has reached 11.1 cases per 100,000 people,” a figure that places the Arab community among the most dangerous in the world in terms of murder rates.
She added that the upward trend has not stopped there, but has worsened over the past two years, reflecting, in her view, a structural failure in law enforcement and crime-fighting policies.
The confrontation moved quickly from the streets to the legal arena—another indication of the complexity of the situation. Abu Saleh explained that Adalah submitted an urgent petition to the Supreme Court after police withdrew prior approval for a protest march in Sakhnin, citing a “shortage of manpower.” She noted that the court effectively accepted the petition after police announced they would roll back the restrictions, arguing that forcing the public to repeatedly resort to the courts is “an abnormal situation,” amid what she describes as a systematic curtailment of the right to protest instead of protecting it.
At the same time, the official political dispute has intensified. Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister of national security and head of the Otzma Yehudit party, said in a statement received by Alhurra that leaders of Arab local authorities “speak with two voices,” accusing them of publicly criticizing the police while at the same time “standing alongside criminal organizations” and opposing police activity in Arab towns.
He said he had allocated “unprecedented resources” to combat crime, including mass arrests, confiscations worth billions, and the establishment of specialized units to fight extortion, according to his statement. He also accused some local authority heads of “turning a blind eye” to criminal activity instead of preventing it.
This rhetoric, however, did little to ease criticism on the Arab street. Protest leaders argue that exchanging accusations offers no practical solutions, and that focusing on blaming local authorities ignores the depth of the crisis. In its statements, the High Follow-Up Committee has stressed that “organized crime is not destiny,” and that fear “is not an option,” emphasizing the need for a comprehensive government plan that addresses crime at its roots and rebuilds the shattered trust between the community and law enforcement institutions.
The wave of protests has expanded to include professional and educational sectors—from medical staff and health institutions to schools and educational bodies—signaling that the strike is no longer confined to a political or municipal act, but has become a comprehensive societal stance, carrying human and moral dimensions that go beyond narrow calculations.
The general strike appears to be more than a one-day protest. It encapsulates years of accumulated frustration and human loss and places the state before a real test: either change the security and political approach toward the Arab community or prepare to confront a prolonged protest wave whose organizers believe that defending the right to life can no longer be postponed or bargained with.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
