‘The Negev is running wild’: Murder spree & rampant gun smuggling plague Israel’s south, fueling tensions with the state

As tensions between authorities and Israel’s Arab community have reached a boiling point in recent weeks, on Wednesday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the western Negev to discuss the problem of gun running, while President Isaac Herzog hosted a meeting focused on the horrific murder spree that has claimed 11 lives since the start of the year. 

Both problems have plagued the Arab community for years but simultaneously escalated in recent weeks, causing additional tensions with the police and security forces. Arab leaders have often blamed authorities for first under-policing their areas then conducting overly violent enforcement operations once crime gets out of hand. 

The approaches to the problems by the prime minister and the president on Wednesday differed notably.  

Where Herzog emphasized dialogue, Netanyahu focused on enforcement of law, order and security in his statements, reportedly disappointing local leaders who had hoped he would rein in controversial police tactics in the Bedouin town of Tarabin, north of Beersheva, where an officer shot dead an Israeli citizen on Saturday. 

Herzog convened several Jewish and Arab heads of local authorities from the Negev region for an emergency meeting in his office to discuss “the escalation of violence and crime in Arab society, with a particular focus on the situation in the Negev,” his office said. 

This came shortly after another triple homicide on Wednesday morning raised the death toll in the Arab sector to eleven since the start of the year. 

“It is unacceptable that since the beginning of January, eleven Arab citizens have been murdered in the State of Israel,” lamented Herzog. 

The three Arab men were murdered together in the northern Arab Israeli town of Shfar'am, where ongoing gang wars have killed dozens in recent months. According to Walla, the blood feud between the Hawalad and Sawad crime families has claimed the lives of at least 30 people, many of whom were uninvolved with crime and targeted only because of family affiliations. 

Mere hours before, a 20-year-old medical student was murdered in the southern village of Arara in the Negev. 

“Stop and think about that number: eleven citizens! This is an inconceivable figure. It is a national disaster and a national challenge. Arab citizens of Israel are entitled to live in complete security, just like their Jewish brothers and sisters. Israeli law must apply in all local authorities, and it is our duty not only to enact it but also to enforce it.” 

“I call on everyone to engage in dialogue and discourse. Violence will lead nowhere. I call for the full exhaustion of the investigation and examination of the incident in Tarabin. This is important so that both Bedouin citizens and Jewish citizens alike will know the truth,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu conducted “an extensive tour of the Western Negev” on Wednesday together with Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and directors-general of government ministries to discuss ways to fight crime in the Arab sector. 

They began by receiving a briefing on the “police enforcement against the smuggling and possession of illegal weapons in the south, the significant seizures of weapons and counter-smuggling operations carried out by police forces in the area and along the borders.” 

The government recently declared the growing phenomenon of smuggling weapons to Gaza, Judea and Samaria, as well as to criminal gangs in Israel, via the Egyptian and Jordanian borders as a national emergency, and security agencies have begun treating the phenomenon as a national security matter rather than a criminal offense. 

The Negev area has been in an uproar recently after Ben Gvir ordered the police to launch a massive raid to arrest smugglers in the Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana around a week ago. 

A local resident, Muhammad Hussein Tarabin, was allegedly shot dead by an officer on Saturday night when police came to arrest him, causing outrage and demonstrations against the ongoing raid. 

The El Kassum Regional Council filed a petition to the High Court of Justice against the operation, which it said constituted collective punishment of the entire town. It is requesting the removal of concrete barriers at the entrance to town, as well as an order to end heavy-handed tactics like home raids and riot control methods such as water cannon, tear gas, and stun grenades. 

According to Walla, 30 suspects have been detained for questioning about violence and weapons offenses in Tarabin, including for possession of two pistols, two rifles, stun grenades, and ammunition. In addition, police issued 808 traffic tickets in the ongoing raid. 

Speaking during the tour, Netanyahu said it was meant “for one purpose – we are coming to return the Negev to the State of Israel.” 

He vowed that this would mean Jewish “settlement on a scale we haven’t known, and it also means providing for the Bedouin residents. But it means, first and foremost – restoring law and order. The Negev is running wild. We will rein it in, and an important operation by the Israel Police, in integration with other forces, has begun.” 

“To rein it in, we must understand that the criminal threat and the security threat have merged into one, with tens of thousands of weapons, with drones crossing borders, and other threats. Therefore, we will bring a national project to achieve all these goals, but primarily to restore governance to the Negev,” Netanyahu declared.