PM orders police crackdown after video of Bedouin gunfire on Negev streets

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered police to crack down on lawlessness in the Bedouin community in southern Israel after a video went viral showing apparent massive celebratory firing of M16 assault rifles at a wedding in a residential neighborhood.

Video of the shooting frenzy, which showed men firing into the air from several vehicles, went viral on social networks. It was apparently filmed in the area of the Bedouin town of Segev Shalom, southeast of Beersheba.

Hours after Netanyahu’s order, a second video surfaced showing masked men beating a motorist.

“The law applies to all,” Netanyahu said during a Knesset committee discussion on the Arab community. “We are not prepared to tolerate violations of the law, and are acting against them as I ordered the public security minister yesterday to take action against rioting and shooting, as we saw.”

“This fits into the same viewpoint — one state, one law — and we will continue doing so,” the prime minister added.

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On Sunday, police said they had already identified several members of the wedding party seen in the video. Police activities are to continue until all those involved have been arrested, a statement said.

Police arrested the bridegroom on Sunday night, but a court ordered him released on Monday and criticized the police for having brought him in.

Shooting is not uncommon at Arab weddings.

Meanwhile, a second video from the same area was widely shared on social media on Monday, showing a group of people blocking a car at a junction, hitting it with clubs and kicking its doors.

A jeep can be seen driving behind another car at Ohalim junction, near Beersheba, when several people — one of them masked — exit the jeep and attack the car. A car can also be seen driving in the wrong direction, with the rioters exiting it and entering the jeep at the end of the incident.

The incident, reportedly filmed on Monday morning, was apparently part of a dispute between two Bedouin families, Ynet reported.

עוד סרטון אלים מצומת אהלים שבנגב: מצלמת הרכב של תושבת באר שבע קלטה הבוקר רעולי פנים, ככל הנראה בדואים, מסתערים וחובטים ברכב, כנראה לאחר שהתנגשו בו @Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/UXp7Sr38GX

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 23, 2018

Israel police said of the second video that “a report on the incident has been received. A police vehicle arrived within minutes. Officers met a bruised civilian and collected testimony from him. An investigation has been opened into the matter.”

In the south of the country, army bases in the Negev desert are routinely robbed, often by Bedouin Israelis who live nearby. Though the problem is well known, it has gone mostly unaddressed. There is generally limited police presence in the area, and the military is limited in its ability to arrest would-be thieves.

Police claim that measures over the past year to combat illicit arms dealing and “wild driving” in Israel have yielded progress and that they seized unprecedented numbers of illegal weapons, “particularly in Arab communities,” in 2017.