Three murders struck Arab-Israeli society in less than 24 hours in the Negev region and in the localities of Zarzir and Taibe. The three cases joined an already long list of 89 Arab-Israelis were killed since the beginning of the year, according to the Abraham Initiatives fund.

Protests in the form of marches, demonstrations and social media initiatives have arisen to stop the violence within Arab-Israeli society and urge the authorities and police to dedicate more resources to that end. This latest series of murders have sparked a spontaneous protest over social networks that spread quickly over Twitter.

It began with a shooting at a wedding in Taibe on Sept. 20. Alaa Sarsour, 25, was killed and a number of wedding guests were injured. Shortly after the incident, Sheren Falah Saab tweeted, “My name is Sheren. I am an Arab citizen of the State of Israel, and Arab lives matter.” She added the hashtag #Arab_Lives_Matter. Her post and others by other activists started a tremendous wave of similar tweets, with the same hashtag appearing in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

These new hashtags echo the slogan "Black Lives Matter" that exploded in the United States in the course of the wide protests against police brutality and institutionalized racism affecting the African-American community. However, in contrast to the US protests, the protest in Israel expressed anger, frustration and disappointment over the police's helplessness and inaction amid the violence that has spread in recent years in Israel’s Arab society.