Arab Israeli leaders call for state of emergency after 5 killed in 12-hour crime wave
Arab Israeli society has suffered from high rates of violence for more than two decades.
Mansour Abbas, chairman of the Arab Israeli Raam party, called on the Israeli government Thursday to declare a state of emergency following the shootings of five Arab Israelis in just 12 hours as gang violence and crime run rampant in Arab towns.
“I demand that the Israeli government convene immediately to declare a state of civil emergency and to launch a crackdown on criminal organizations,” Abbas said Thursday. He called for the immediate “administrative detention of hundreds of members of these organizations and their placement under physical and electronic surveillance.”
Crime wave
The five men were killed in separate incidents across the country. Farid Abu Mubarak was shot dead in the southern village of Segev Shalom and Hussein Abu Rakayek was killed in Lod in central Israel. Muktar Ata Abu Madighem was killed in the Bedouin town of Rahat, where his father was once mayor. Muslim cleric Najib Abu Reish was killed in the northern town of Yarka and Mohammed Qasem was killed in his home village of Furadis.
