KAFR YASHIF, Israel (AP) — Nabil Safiya was taking a break from studying for a biology exam to meet his cousin at a pizza parlor when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire from the side of the road, killing a 15-year-old boy sitting in a black Renault.
The shooting shocked his hometown of Kafr Yasif and police later said it was a case of mistaken identity. Like many Palestinian towns in Israel, the city has long been besieged by a wave of gang violence and family feuds.
“There’s no set time for gunshots anymore,” said Ashraf Safiya, Nabil’s father. “They can kill you in school, they can kill you in the street, they can kill you on the football field.”
The violence plaguing Israel’s Arab minority has become an inevitable part of daily life. Activists have long accused authorities of failing to address the problem and say that feeling has deepened under Israel’s current far-right government.
One out of every five citizens of Israel is Palestinian. The crime-related killing rate among them is more than 22 times higher than among Jewish Israelis, yet arrest and prosecution rates for these crimes are much lower. Critics see the disparity as evidence of deep-rooted discrimination and neglect.
Increasing demonstrations are sweeping Israel. Thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand action, while the Arab community went on strike and closed shops and schools.
After Nabeel was shot dead in November, residents took to the streets, students went on strike, and the Safia family turned their home into a shrine with Nabeel’s photos and posters.
People’s anger has to do not only with what happened, but also with how often it happened.
“Jewish society has one set of laws, Palestinian society has a different set of laws,” Ghassan Munayeh, a political activist from Lod, a mixed city with a large Palestinian population, said at a recent protest.
Violence is prevalent
Some Palestinian citizens have reached the highest levels of Israeli business and politics. Yet many feel abandoned by the authorities, with underinvestment in their communities and high unemployment rates fueling frustration and distrust of the state.
Nabil was one of a record 252 Palestinian citizens killed in Israel last year, according to the Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli NGO that promotes coexistence and safer communities. The death toll continues to rise, with at least 26 new crime-related killings in January.
Walid Haddad, a criminologist who teaches at Ono College and previously worked for Israel’s Ministry of National Security, said organized crime thrives in arms trafficking and loan sharking where people lack credit. Gangs also extort “protection” from residents and business owners, he said.
Based on interviews with gang members in jails and courthouses, he said their earnings range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether the job involves burning cars, shooting up buildings or assassinating rival leaders.
“If they shoot at houses or people once or twice a month, they can buy cars and go on trips. It’s easy money,” Haddad said, noting that impunity prevails.
The violence has stifled the rhythm of life in many Palestinian communities. In Kafr Yasif, a town of 10,000 people in northern Israel, the streets deserted by nightfall and for those trying to sleep, it was not uncommon to hear gunshots ring out through the neighborhood.
Prosecution lags
Last year, only 8% of killings of Palestinian citizens resulted in charges against the suspect, compared with 55% in the Jewish community, according to the Abraham Initiative.
Rama Yassin, director of shared cities and regions at the Abraham Initiative, said tensions with the police have long hindered calls by Palestinian citizens for new police stations or more officers in their communities.
no longer.
“In recent years, because people are so depressed and feel like they can’t go about their daily lives…Arabs are saying, ‘Whatever it takes, even if it means having more police in our towns,'” Yassin said.
The killings have become a rallying cry for Palestinian-led parties after successive governments pledged to curb the bloodshed with little success. Politicians and activists see the spate of violence as a reflection of selective enforcement and police apathy.
“We have been discussing this issue for ten years,” said member of parliament Aida Touma-Suleiman.
She called the policing of Palestinian communities “collective punishment,” noting that when Jews were victims of violence, police often set up roadblocks in neighboring Palestinian towns, flooded areas, and dispatched police officers to arrest suspects en masse.
“The only party that can crush the mafia is the state, and the state has done nothing but make (organized crime) understand that they are free to do whatever they want,” Touma-Suleiman said.
She added that many communities feel impunity has worsened, under the leadership of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gweil, who has authority over the police, has launched an aggressive and visible campaign against other crimes, targeted protests and pushed for tougher action in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli police deny accusations of skewed priorities, saying killings in these communities are a top priority. Police also say the investigation is challenging because witnesses don’t always cooperate.
“Investigative decisions are guided by evidence, operational considerations and due process, not indifference or lack of priority,” police said in a statement.
unanswered request
In “Kafr Yasif,” Ashraf Safiya vows that his son will not become another statistic.
When he learned of the shooting, he had just returned home from his dental work and spoke to Nabeel on the phone. He rushed to the scene and found Nabeel being taken to the hospital with the windows shattered. Doctors there pronounced him dead.
“The idea is that this boy’s blood will not be wasted,” Safia said of the protest he helped organize. “If people stop caring about these cases, we’re going to have another case after another.”
Authorities said last month they were preparing to charge a 23-year-old man arrested in connection with the shooting in a neighboring town. They said the intended target was a relative, referring to Nabeel’s cousin who was with him that night.
They described Nabil as the victim of a “blood feud within Arab society.”
During a demonstration in Kafr Yasif in late January, marchers held portraits of Nabil and Nidal Mosaedah, another local boy killed in the violence. Police broke up the protest, saying it lasted longer than authorized, and arrested leaders, including a former town council president.
Residents said the show of force may have quelled a protest but did nothing to stop the killings.
__ Hazboun reported from Jerusalem.
