The first Monday of this year, a father and his 15-year-old son traveled to Nazareth to install security cameras outside a customer’s home. Adham Nassar and his son Nazim arrived in Israel’s largest Arab city that afternoon, entered the yard through a tall metal gate and got to work.

At 5:30 p.m., emergency services in the city received a report of a shooting. Paramedics reached the scene to find the two sprawled on the ground, their bodies riddled with bullets.

Nasser and his son were laid to rest in their hometown of Tur’an. Hundreds attended the evening funeral, and photos of the pair were shared far and wide on social media.

But while the killing shook Arab society, it barely registered among the country’s Jews, lost in a news cycle dominated by protests in Iran, the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and Knesset sparring.

Only when the death toll in the Arab community climbed into the double digits during that first bloody week of the year did the issue of violent crime plaguing a community that makes up a fifth of the population begin to command attention from the Jewish majority, with President Isaac Herzog calling the issue an “emergency” that should be “occupying the thoughts” of Israel’s politicians daily as a top priority.

According to critics, the issue has not been addressed. A year after a record toll of 252 murders in the Arab, 2026 is on pace to top that by over 20 percent.

This week, though, Israel’s politicians appeared to finally pay attention. “Murderous violence is unbearable,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared, as police launched a major operation to crack down on deadly crime. “We will not accept it, and we will root it out.”

But the impetus for the push was not the 98 people killed in the Arab community so far this year. Rather, it was a pair of deadly stabbings last week: On Independence Day eve, a group of teenagers jumped 21-year-old Yemanu Zelka as he left his job at a Pizza Hut in Petah Tikva, beating him and knifing him to death. Two days later, 19-year-old Destao Tzakul was stabbed to death in Beersheba by another group of teens when leaving his house.

For many in the Arab community, who have been living in the shadow of unfettered violence for many years now, the sudden focus on crime from Israel’s police and decision-makers is seen as more evidence of the country’s perceived neglect of the minority.

The double standard stems from “racist governance and years-long discrimination,” Deiaa Haj Yahia, a journalist for Nazareth-based Nas Radio station, told The Times of Israel.

“We see this discrimination in police statements, also,” he said. “When there’s shooting in Kfar Saba, they treat it seriously and give details, as opposed to in Tira, where it’s business as usual.”

Mounting violent crime has taken a heavy toll on civic life in most of the country’s Arab cities and towns, where many experience a palpable fear of being shot........

© The Times of Israel