Will Arabs work with Israel to fight violence in their villages?
Israel's public security minister and the Arab Joint List agreed to work together to stop the spread of illegal weapons in Arab towns in Israel, but whether the community cooperates remains to be seen.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Arab political leaders in Israel hope their constituents will come to cooperate with Israeli security services to eliminate violence in Arab towns and cities, where crime has reached high levels in part because of the spread of unlicensed weapons.
For decades, the Arab community has largely refused to deal with official Israeli institutions, which they accuse of racism against the 1.8 million Arabs who live there and make up 20% of Israel's population. For example, in July 2018, Israel adopted a law claiming Israel as the exclusive "nation-state" of the Jewish people. The law reads, “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” and it eliminated Arabic as an official language.
