“This fight demands solidarity between Arabs and Jews”

Since January, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have protested each week against the government's plan to reform the judicial system, which they say will undermine the independence of the judiciary. Palestinian citizens of Israel have been a small minority at the protests. There are many reasons for this relative absence. One has been concerns about a lack of attention paid to issues facing the Arab Israeli community.

The situation in Arab Israeli communities has continued to deteriorate during the first five months of 2023. The number of gang-related murders in Arab Israeli communities now numbers over 100. In 2022 the total was 116 for the whole year. Women and children are among the dead, as family members of gang members are also targeted. The reasons for the rise in gang crime are complex but among them are the lack of opportunities for young people, poor policing and lack of investment in Arab Israeli and mixed cities. Earlier in June, ten people were killed within the space of 72 hours according to The Jerusalem Post.

In a speech to approximately 80,000 protesters at a judicial reform protest in Tel Aviv, Dr Thabet Abu Ras, the Co-Executive Director of The Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli NGO that strives to fulfil the promise of full and equal citizenship and complete equality of social and political rights for Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens, gave an impassioned speech calling for justice, democracy and a united approach to ending the violence and deaths.

*Disclaimer - the views expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of Embrace the Middle East.