Woman found dead in her home in village of Abu Snan, husband arrested
Anti-violence group says 70 members of Arab community have been killed in violent incidents this year
A woman was found dead in her home in the northern Arab village of Abu Snanon Tuesday and her husband was arrested as a suspect, the Israel Police said.
Medical teams contacted police after finding the woman with no vital signs, the police statement said.
Channel 13 reported that the woman’s body showed indications of violent assault.
Officers, suspecting foul play, arrested and questioned the woman’s husband, 38.
Police said it was a criminal incident and that it was further probing the matter.
The Abraham Initiatives, an anti-violence group, said that since the start of 2024, there have been 70 members of the Arab community who died in incidents of violent crime. Of those, 62 were shot dead.
Three of those killed were women.
On Sunday three members of the Arab community were shot dead in separate incidents.
A year-end report published by the Abraham Initiative found that more Arabs were murdered in 2023 than in any previous year.
The group, which has worked extensively on relations between the Israel Police and Arab Israelis, roundly blamed the sharp uptick in homicides on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has in the past been convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization over anti-Arab placards, and whose ministry is responsible for policing.
Many Arab Israeli community leaders place the blame for the rising murders on police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars, and attacks on women.
The communities have also suffered from years of neglect by state authorities. More than half of Arab Israelis live under the poverty line, and their cities and towns often have crumbling infrastructure and poor public services. The government issues economic rankings to all the country’s cities from 1 to 10. Almost no Arab city scores higher than 5.
Meanwhile, authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminals.
