‘Organized crime groups are subcontractors for the Netanyahu government’s destruction of Israel’s Arab society’

26 snips

Feb 6, 2026

Aida Touma-Sliman, longtime Palestinian-Israeli MK and activist for Arab citizens' rights and women, speaks about the surge in organized crime and its role in eroding Arab society. She links declining homicide investigations and political choices to escalating violence. She also discusses leaving parliament, revitalizing the Joint List, grassroots organizing, and critiques of the Israeli center-left.

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INSIGHT

Cross-Community Solidarity Shows Hope

The Tel Aviv protests showed Arab citizens and Jewish allies united against lawlessness and neglect.
Aida Touma-Slima sees this cross-community solidarity as hopeful for building a different future.

INSIGHT

Organized Crime As A Societal Destroyer

Organized crime in Arab localities functions with hierarchy, soldiers, and heavy weapons, affecting every aspect of life.
Touma-Slima argues this violence debilitates economic and civic life, forcing people to focus on survival.

ANECDOTE

Engineer Threatened For Resisting Corruption

Touma-Slima recounts an engineer threatened for refusing municipal contracts to crime groups.
She says his house was shot at seven times and he now lives under constant police protection.

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This week, President Isaac Herzog declared that the record-high homicide rate in Israel’s Arab sector constitutes a “national emergency.” But according to Knesset member Aida Touma-Sliman, the organized crime groups behind the violence in Israel thrive because “this is a policy conducted by the government.”

“Crime groups are their subcontractor for the destruction of our society, making us terrorized individuals looking only to live their lives quietly. When you are struggling for the basic right to live, you forget all about struggling for other political, economic and social rights,” Touma-Sliman said.

She noted that only 10 percent of the murders of Arabs are solved – down from 40 percent under past governments – and in stark contrast with the Jewish sector, in which a vast majority of cases are closed. “A very bad message is being sent by the police to the murderers and criminals: that you can do whatever you want and nobody will touch you as long as it remains among the Arabs,” she said.

Touma-Sliman said she was convinced that if National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir believed that the stashes of deadly weapons in the hands of Arab crime organizations were to be used against Jews, “he would know exactly how to smash them down. But he is not willing to do it, as long as they are only committing crimes among the Arabs. He is enjoying the scene.”

Touma-Sliman also discussed the reunion of the Joint List, the reasons behind her decision not to run in the coming election, and her deep disappointment with Israel’s opposition parties and “so-called left.”

Opposition leaders “are not supposed to personally replace Netanyahu,” she said. “If you want to be an alternative, be courageous enough to create a different vision for how the citizens of Israel should be living and how Israel should be as a state.”

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