‘They can solve this problem’: Rally in Mazra’a protests violent crime wave in Arab society

Hundreds demonstrate in the Arab town of Mazra’a in northern Israel against the ongoing wave of violent crime in Arab society.

The widow of Dr. Abdallah Awad, 30, a pediatrician who was murdered at a Clalit health clinic in the Western Galilee a year ago, stands silently at the demonstration, and told The Times of Israel that “nothing has changed.”

Mazra’a Mayor Fuad Awad, a close relative of the slain doctor, tells the crowd of protesters, a mix of Arabs and Jews, “If Israel can send a rocket through a window in Tehran, they can solve this problem.”

Last year, 252 Arabs in Israel were killed in violent circumstances. So far this year, the tally is 29.

The past three years have seen a huge uptick in violent crime among Arab citizens of Israel.

“We will succeed in stopping these murders,” says Qasem Awad, Dr. Awad’s father. “We want security. We thank our Jewish brothers and sisters from all our heart for being here.”

“We are not asking for anything but justice,” says Ashraf Suliman, whose nephew, Najwan Suliman, 19, a student, was killed at work at a clothing store in Tamra in October 2025.

“We face discrimination because the government thinks of us as numbers,” Suliman says.

He says the police have yet to offer any information to the family about the cause of his nephew’s murder, except to say, “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He complains that “lawyers defend the criminals who then get out of jail within a month.”

Suliman predicts that if the government abandons the Arab sector, “it will explode.”