Three men shot, one dies, in the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya in the latest incident of fatal violence in Israel’s Arab sector.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Israeli Arab leaders slammed government inaction after three people were shot Tuesday in the Israeli Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye. One of the men died of his injuries.

The shooting in the town of 30,000 people roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv is the latest in a string of violent crimes that continues to plague Israel’s Arab communities.

The three victims were evacuated to a hospital, one lightly wounded, one in serious condition and a third who was pronounced dead shortly after arriving unconscious, the Magen David Adom ambulance service reported.

“The rising crime in Arab society is an emergency: 44 have been murdered since the beginning of the year,” tweeted Knesset member Yousef Jabareen. “The Arab street feels like a civil war is happening in front of its eyes, but the racist government is not moving from its seat.”

However, experts note that Israel’s Arab population has to shoulder a major portion of the responsibility for what is an ongoing problem.

“Arab politicians blame the Israeli establishment for the rampaging violence in Israeli Arab society, but ignore the underlying problems in their own sociopolitical culture that foster that violence,” said Dr. Edy Cohen, a specialist in inter-Arab relations and Institute for National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.

Cohen pointed out the hostility among Arab citizens toward the establishment with many considering the police their enemy and the lack of cooperation encourages more violence and crime.

“Israeli Arabs must understand that if they want peace and security within their communities, they must allow the police to do their job,” said Cohen. “Arab politicians and government officials must educate their constituents and encourage them to cooperate with the police, and they must stop promoting division and inciting against the establishment and the state more widely.”

Following the June 10 murder of 28-year-old Khalil Abd al-Fateh in Haifa, Knesset member Ayman Odeh called the death “a victim of criminal organizations and also of police indifference to the murder of Arab civilians. Another unnecessary death of a young Arab. Another shattered family.”

Odeh, chairman of the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties in Israel’s parliament, repeated ongoing complaints by Arab community leaders that the government and Israel’s national police force are continuing to ignore violence in the Arab sector that is getting worse because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The economic crisis is just beginning. Debt and unemployment will push countless people into the black market and into the hands of criminal organizations,” Odeh tweeted. “A comprehensive government decision to fight crime is ever more critical.”

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Member of Knesset Yousef Jabareen called for a “mass mobilization on the ground” against the Jewish state at an anti-Israel event in London.

By World Israel News Staff

Member of Knesset Yousef Jabareen (Hadash-Ta’al) publicly called to boycott Israel in a speech he delivered over the weekend at a pro-BDS conference in London, Kan news reported.

“The international community has all the tools to deal with war crimes – to boycott settlers, to boycott settlement products, to boycott international companies,” said Jabareen at the Palestine Expo conference.

Organized by the openly pro-BDS NGO “Friends of Al Aqsa,” the Palestine Expo boasts to be the “biggest Palestine event in Europe.”

According to the conference schedule, MK Ahmad Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al), Ben-Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon and Ha’aretz journalist Gideon Levy also spoke at the event.

In his speech, Jabareen also accused Israel of being an apartheid state and urged more “mobilization” against Israel.

“There needs to a more mass mobilization of our people on the ground, in Gaza but also in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria],” continued Jabareen.  “[Israel] is exactly like the South African Bantustan. And it’s a combination of apartheid and occupation.”

Ahead of the conference, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan (Likud) tried but was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing Jabareen from participating in the conference.

In a letter sent by Erdan to the Knesset’s legal adviser, he argued that Jabareen’s trip should be blocked because the group funding his ticket, Middle East Monitor, is an extremist organization with ties to BDS

Similarly, the Legal Division of the Zionist organization Im Tirtzu sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, demanding to sanction Jabareen and Tibi for their participation in the conference.

“This is a black day for the Knesset,” said Im Tirtzu’s director of policy, Alon Schvartzer. “Arab MKs are exploiting their positions to participate in pro-BDS conferences and spew lies and hatred against Israel.”

Schvartzer continued: “We are calling on members of the Knesset and the Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein to utilize their parliamentary power and impose sanctions against these MKs who participated in this hateful event.”

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