Nationwide disruptions will be intensified to protest the rise in crime in the Arab sector, Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh said Sunday.
His remarks in an interview with The Jerusalem Post came as a mass protest convoy demonstrated against the rise in violent crime in the Arab Israeli communities.
The protest caused roadblocks along central highways. Demonstrators then gathered at Jerusalem’s government complex outside the Knesset and the Prime Minister’s Office, leading to further traffic congestion.
“We are disrupting things because we want them to listen to us,” Odeh told the Post.
The next stages would involve an economic boycott, including halting shopping at malls and using banks, he said.
Such boycotts would be good for everyone in Israeli society, since “the biggest harm to the economy is crime itself,” Odeh said.
The goal of the disruptions would be “first to save human lives, which is the highest value in Judaism, and second, for the economy to be healthy,” he said.
The rise in Arab crime has caused “entire families to be destroyed, households to be ruined, communities to be ruined, children left orphaned, and tourism harmed,” Odeh said.
“So, even if what we’re doing is economic disruption, the goal is good for everyone,” he told the Post.
“We tell the state: ‘Our culture, our education, at home and at school, is successful with 99% of Arab citizens. Our problem is 1% [of the Arab population]. You need to deal with the 1% – the crime organizations,’” he added.
Arab sector crime spike blamed on Ben-Gvir
Critics have blamed the spike in crime in the Arab sector on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), who oversees the police and has held the portfolio since 2022.
Last year was the deadliest year so far for the Arab sector in Israel, according to a December report by the Abraham Initiatives, an NGO that advances social inclusion and equal rights for Arab Israelis.
“The crime rate among Arabs inside the State of Israel exceeds that of Palestinians anywhere else in the world,” Odeh said. “I checked crime rates in Yemen, Qatar, and elsewhere. Over all the years combined, over all the years together, fewer than 250 Arabs were murdered. And now, in a single year [2025], more than 250 [were] murdered.”
Ben-Gvir defended the Israel Police in an interview with KAN Reshet Bet on Sunday morning and praised its efforts to reduce crime.
Ben-Gvir’s statements “were not true,” Odeh told the Post, adding that there has been a rise in femicide in the country.
“There is also no doubt that there are two states: There is a state for Jews, and we [the Arab sector] live without police, without a state,” he said.
Odeh said there has been no communication between him and Ben-Gvir.
Ben-Gvir has partially attributed failure to curb crime in the Arab sector to interference by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.
In response, Odeh said: “That’s not serious. One should be ashamed of answers like that, honestly.”
“I’m calling on Arab citizens and Jewish citizens: There is no half-society,” he said. “We live in one place, in one society, and we must struggle together for a healthy society, without weapons, without criminal organizations.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (New Hope-United Right) criticized Odeh on Sunday. Although he has complained about the state’s role in the rise of Arab crime, he has also called for civil disobedience, she said in a social-media post.
“You cannot cry about a lack of governance in the morning and sabotage police work in the evening,” Haskel said. “The blood of the victims in the [Arab] sector is also on the hands of those who have turned police officers in the sector into enemies.”