The Israel Police held a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new police station in the Israeli Arab city of Shfaram on Thursday, one day after six Arabs were murdered in two gang-related incidents.
In the first incident, the victim, Ataf abu Kalib, was shot dead on a Haifa street in broad daylight, and in the second, five people were murdered in one attack in the northern Bedouin town of Basmat Tabun. The victims all belonged to the same Delaika family, identified as: Walid, 14, Adam, 17, Rabia, in his 20s, Zinab, in her 40s, and her son, Muhammad Hassan, 25. Zinab’s husband and Muhammad Hassan’s father were moderately wounded in the shooting.
So far this year, 188 Israeli Arabs have been murdered, compared to 80 at the same time last year.
Shabtai: I take responsibility, will not rest until justice is done
At the ceremony, Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai addressed the incidents. “When armed murderers enter a home’s yard or open fire in the middle of a main street, as far as I am concerned, they are terrorists,” he said.
“Therefore, I instructed yesterday at the scene that the Israel Police make use of all the manpower and technological means it has for the investigation. And I take responsibility here: We will not rest until we bring these murderers to justice.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir praised the fact that the residents of Shfaram would be able to get service from the police in a respectable police station and added that more officers would be added to the force.
At the same time as the ceremony, a peaceful protest was held by the Standing Together movement in Dizengoff Square to demonstrate against the ongoing violence in the Arab sector. As part of the demonstration, the protesters dyed the water in the square’s fountain red and held signs and photos of Wednesday’s victims, and against the failed policies of Ben-Gvir.
“When budgets are taken from the Arabs, quality education and employment opportunities are denied, it is a systematic plan to crush Arab society, and there is no choice but to turn to the gray market and crime. Plans to deal with crime and violence have been on the table since the beginning of the year. It is an active choice not to do anything about it,” the organization said. “What happened yesterday should stop the entire country and it is simply unimaginable.”
Yuval Barnea contributed to this report.