Northern police chief: We’re not in struggle against Arab crime, we’re at war

The Israel Police’s Northern District Chief Shimon Lavi has said the country is “not in a struggle against crime in Arab society, we are at war.”

Lavi is quoted by Haaretz saying during a conference in Acre that with around half of the population in the country’s north being Arab, “those 50% are responsible for 99% of murders, 99% of shootings, 65% of arson and 80% of robberies.”

He adds that he is glad that “there is an understanding that this is not a problem of Arab Israelis, but of all Israelis. That if we don’t wake up in time it will reach other places too.”

Also speaking at the conference, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev says the violence in the Arab public came from “neglect by the state” and was cultivated on “a bed of frustration, discrimination and anger.”