Government readies crackdown after videos of Bedouin gunfire surface

The government on Sunday gave initial approval to a law that would mandate a five-year prison sentence for illegal gunfire, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week ordered police to crack down on lawlessness in the Bedouin community in the south.

The issue gained public attention last week when a video surfaced showing apparent massive celebratory firing of M16 assault rifles at a wedding in a residential neighborhood.

The footage showed men firing into the air from several vehicles. It was apparently filmed in the area of the Bedouin town of Segev Shalom, southeast of Beersheba.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked prepared the legislation after determining that the existing law doesn’t adequately address the current situation.

Punishments for such offenses had been lenient and enforcement was ineffective, Erdan said.

The new law extends the maximum punishment for illegal shooting that puts lives at risk to five years in jail, while the maximum penalty for shooting in non-life-threatening situations will be two years.

“This increase in punishment, alongside heightened law enforcement, is the real way to treat the ‘wild south’ phenomenon — there or anywhere else in the country,” Netanyahu told ministers at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“I expect police to do everything to deal with the phenomenon of shootings in the Bedouin and Arab sectors,” said Erdan.

Shaked warned that Israel would “land an iron fist on criminals of every kind and everywhere. The legislation is important to return the sense of securiuty to Israeli citizens.”

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is expected to approve the bill later on Sunday, paving the way for three rounds of voting in the parliament’s plenum.