Ra’am’s Abbas says Netanyahu yet to fulfill promises to curb crime in Arab streets

Ra’am party head MK Mansour Abbas says that the government has not met Arab party demands to curb violent crime, six weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly committed to taking action.

In June, Netanyahu met with the majority-Arab Hadash-Ta’al party to discuss stemming deadly violence in Arab communities, a central issue for Arab politicians. Separately, Ra’am sent Netanyahu a letter with a list of requested actions to take to counter crime, and the Knesset held a floor debate on the issue.

After meeting with Hadash-Ta’al, Netanyahu’s office released a statement, quoting the prime minister as saying: “We need to put politics to the side, get rid of divisions and work together to eradicate the crime scourge.”

Abbas, speaking at the outset of Ra’am’s Knesset faction meeting, said: “One and a half months after this meeting, no directive, decision, or meaningful step has been taken.”

“If the prime minister and government of Israel can’t take responsibility,” Abbas says, “we in Ra’am are ready to appoint a project czar.”

Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al previously rejected far-right police minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s overture to name a czar.

Abbas also criticized the coalition’s plan to outlaw judicial review over the reasonableness of government or minister decisions, saying that ending the ability to petition the courts to exercise such oversight would hurt Arab Israelis’ ability to integrate into the broader Israeli society and close socioeconomic gaps.

Arab society will continue to “sink” as a result of canceling the judicial test, he says.