Middle East

Gun violence scars Israel’s Arab communities

The wails of the two bereaved mothers intertwined. They were waiting for their sons’ bodies to be released from the morgue, to be buried side by side.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

A concrete wall and half-finished fence divide the homes of Muhammad Khatib, 20, and Leith Nasra, 19, who were gunned down in the early morning of March 19 in the Arab city of Qalansawe, in central Israel. Their names joined those on a growing list of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed by surging gun violence in Arab communities. Though they make up one-fifth of Israel’s population, Arab Israelis say police and politicians are ignoring the high rates of crime and poverty in their neighborhoods.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

“Nobody is safe,” said Nasra’s aunt, Sawsan. She held the Israeli government responsible. “We are supposed to be living in a democratic country with laws, but where are the police?”

In the meantime, large pots, in better times brimming with food for celebrations, were now once more filled with water for cleansing the dead.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Residents of the northern Arab-majority town of Umm al-Fahm took to the streets to protest police brutality and gun violence on March 5.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

The violence has crept up alongside the pandemic and despite pledges for change by politicians. On Tuesday, Israelis vote for the fourth time in 23 months to try yet again to break an electoral impasse that’s paralyzed the politically polarized country.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, struggling to stay in power, has both allied himself with an extreme-right party that calls for the expulsion of Israel’s Arab communities — and tried to court these same voters by promising to fight crime if reelected.

It’s a gamble unlikely to resonate with the thousands of residents of the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, who took to the streets in early March waiving Palestinian flags and protesting claims of police brutality and neglect.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

A Palestinian flag is seen hanging on March 5 from a billboard of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside a caption reading in Arabic: “The father of the nation-state law, says 'a new approach', whom is he fooling?"

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

More violence, and more mourning tents and protests, followed in the weeks since.

Fourteen-year-old Mohammed Adas was killed March 9 while eating pizza with a friend outside his home in the central city of Jaljulia. There was a police station nearby. But they still do not know who fired those fateful shots and why, his father said.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

A relative carries a poster showing Mustafa Hamid, the 12-year-old critically wounded while sitting with his friend, Mohammed Adas, 14, who was killed in a shooting attack by unknown assailants. Hundreds protested in the Israeli Arab town of Jaljulia, on March 12.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Abdelrazek Adas, the father of Mohammed Adas, is comforted by a relative as they wait for his son’s body to be returned for burial in Jaljulia on March 10.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Relatives of Muhammad Khatib, 20, wait for his body to arrive for his funeral at the family’s home in Qalansawe on March 19.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Relatives place a blanket and pillow in a wooden crate that will be used to carry the body of Leith Nasra, 19, outside the family’s home in Qalansawe on March 19.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

A child weeps by the gate to the home of Mohammed Adas, as family members wait for his body to be released by the Israeli police to begin his funeral in Jaljulia on March 10.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Relatives wait by an open grave for the body of Mohammed Adas to arrive to the cemetery during his funeral.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Malaka Abu Kishil, 14, Limor Abu Dieb, 15, and Heba Abu Shakif, 14, all classmates of Mohammed Adas, painted their faces with red hands to symbolize the bloodshed in their community, as they protest at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on March 18.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

The Aghbariah family stands with hundreds of Israeli Arabs during a protest held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv against the alarming wave of violence in their community on March 18. The family held photographs of Muhammed Nasser Aghbariah, 21, who was killed last January.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

The Aghbariah family stands among hundreds of Israeli Arabs during a protest held in Rabin Square.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Relatives of Leith Nasra gather for his funeral in Qalansawe on March 19.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Men carry the bodies of Muhammad Khatib and Leith Nasra during a joint funeral outside their homes.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

An Arab citizen of Israel weeps as she holds a sign of a victim of violence during a protest held in Rabin Square on March 18.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

A poster showing Arab citizens of Israel who have been killed is seen during the Rabin Square protest.

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press

Heidi Levine/Sipa Press