The three terrorists from Umm al-Fahm who launched the attack on the Temple Mount on July 14 were not the first terrorists to emerge from the Israeli Arab community. On Jan. 1, 2016, Neshat Melhem, a resident of Arara (in the north of Israel), carried out an attack in Tel Aviv that left two Israelis dead and seven wounded; he also killed a third person as he tried to escape. Melhem's father claimed that his son was unstable.

There was also the October 2015 shooting attack in Beersheba by Muhanad Alukabi, a Bedouin resident of the town of Hura in the Negev. A relative described his actions as a moment of temporary insanity. That attack left an Israel Defense Forces soldier dead. An Eritrean guest worker who happened to be in the area was also killed in the incident when he was lynched by passersby who confused him for the attacker.

In contrast, the recent attack on the Temple Mount was committed by three armed terrorists after careful planning. In their case, no one in Umm al-Fahm claimed they acted out of some momentary impulse or that they are not mentally responsible for what they did. The three men — Muhammad Ahmed Jabarin (29), Muhammad Hamid Jabarin (19) and Muhammad Ahmed Mufdal Jabarin (19) — belong to one of the largest families in the city. They launched their attack out of religious zealotry, fomented by the steady flow of incitement in the largest Arab city in the Triangle. Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, is directly involved in the incitement.

After the attack, residents of Umm al-Fahm who are not supporters of Salah were afraid to speak to Al-Monitor. "There is a sense of terror here toward anyone who speaks critically of the Islamic Movement," said A., a father of five who lives in the city and spoke on condition of anonymity. He claimed that Umm al-Fahm became very religious after Salah was elected mayor in 1989, defeating Hashem Mahmid of the radical left-wing Hadash Party. Until then, many residents of the Arab city were considered to be supporters of Hadash, with its socialist and communist messages. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 accelerated the replacement of communist ideology with religious Islamism.