Man shot dead in Ramle, 124th member of Arab community killed this year

A man was shot dead in the central city of Ramle on Sunday afternoon amid an unrelenting wave of killings in Israel’s Arab communities that has claimed more lives since the beginning of 2023 than in all of 2022.

Police said the man was not immediately identified.

The man was brought to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center “independently,” police said.

According to the Abraham Initiatives anti-violence monitor, the killing brought to 124 the number of Arab community members who have died in violent crime since the start of the year. The total for 2022 was 116.

Of this year’s victims, 112 were killed by gunfire, the watchdog said.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who campaigned on promises to beef up public safety and whose ministry oversees the police, has largely stayed quiet on the soaring crimewave.

However, on Saturday the minister, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party said that he was “not asking for advice” from the Shin Bet on the crime wave, and was instead looking to deploy the internal security agency’s advanced anti-terror tools against Israeli criminal suspects.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during a press conference at the Knesset, on July 5, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ben Gvir was responding to a Channel 12 report that the Shin Bet had put together a plan for a committee of ex-operatives who would work with the police and share their experiences in fighting terror organizations.

According to the report, Ben Gvir’s National Security Ministry did not move ahead with the plan, which remains solely a proposal.

Last week saw six people killed by gunfire in a period of less than 48 hours.

At the time, MK Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamist Ra’am party, panned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was not doing anything to end the violence.

“Not a single decision or significant step has been made since the establishment of the government,” Abbas said.

“Thank you, government of Israel; well done, Netanyahu. The successful appointment of the minister of national security restored order and brought governance and self-confidence to the criminal organizations,” he said.

Many community leaders blame the crime wave on the police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.