Man shot dead in Tira in the 5th killing in the Arab community in just over a day
Samar Nasser, 25, was reportedly not the intended target of the hit; MK Touma-Sliman: Far-right police minister Ben Gvir ‘doesn’t know how to do his job and has bad intentions’
A man was shot dead in Tira on Thursday, the fifth member of the Arab community to be gunned down in just over 24 hours, amid a spiraling spate of slayings that has already claimed more lives in the past eight months than in the entire year before.
Samar Nasser, 25, was shot dead in the central district city.
The target of the shooting was apparently someone else, according to an unsourced report on the Ynet news site.
Medics declared Nasser dead at the scene, Israel Police said.
MK Aida Touma-Sliman of the mostly Arab-member Joint List party told Ynet that the government “ignores this bitter reality and entrusts our security in the hands of a minister who is not trustworthy.”
“He doesn’t know how to do his job, and he has bad intentions,” Touma-Sliman said of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
טירה- הצעיר, סאמר עזאם נאס׳ר , בן ה-25 נורה למוות היום בטירה. pic.twitter.com/6tpBruvIKR
— رسالة – רסאלה (@RISALA_2) July 13, 2023
Ben Gvir, who campaigned on promises to beef up public safety, has largely stayed quiet on the soaring crimewave despite his ministry overseeing the police.
Nasser’s death added to four other apparently unconnected killings since early Wednesday morning.
According to the Abraham Initiatives anti-violence monitor, the killings brought to 122 the number of Arab community members who have died in violent crime since the start of the year. The total for 2022 was 116.
Earlier Thursday MK Mansour Abbas, chair of the Islamist Ra’am party, panned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was not doing anything to end the violence.
“Four murders today, 120 since the beginning of the year,” he said. “Many hundreds of injured, thousands of ruined families, and an entire community that has been abandoned to organized crime.”
“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.
Opposition National Unity leader MK Benny Gantz also criticized government policy, saying in a statement it was “harming the ability to deal with the scourge of violence and lack of governance.
“Instead of fighting crime and saving human lives – this government is fighting protesters and the justice system,” Gantz said referring to protests against the coalition’s controversial efforts to overhaul the judiciary, mass protests against the plan, and police handling of the demonstrations.
He said his party will, in the coming weeks, introduce bills to fight crime.
“A national calamity is not overcome with words, but with actions,” Gantz said.
Many community leaders blame 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 primary cause of the problem.
The Times of Israel Community.