From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 26, 2026
Hadash-Ta’al chair Odeh urges Jews to join rally against violent crime in Arab society
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh invites Israeli Jews to attend a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening and join their Arab counterparts’ struggle “to live in personal security.”
“On Saturday night in Tel Aviv, there will be a huge demonstration. We call on the Jewish public to come and participate with us,” declares Odeh, who is flanked by the families of Arab victims of crime during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“There is no half democracy, and there is no half equality, and there is no half living together; this is the struggle of all of us to live in personal security,” he adds.
The Arab leadership in Israel last Thursday held a nationwide general strike over the police’s failure to stem an ongoing wave of violent crime and near-daily killings besetting the community.
Arab society experienced its deadliest year on record in 2025, with 252 homicide victims. And since the start of January, 20 more people have lost their lives to violent crime. Polling in the past year has shown that the vast majority of Arab society lacks trust in law enforcement.
The Times of Israel Community.