The head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, this morning (Wednesday) held a meeting with heads of authorities from the Arab society in the municipality of Umm al-Fahm, in view of the significant increase in incidents of violence and murder in Arab society.
The meeting took place in the presence of the former Deputy Minister of Internal Security, MK Yoav Segalovich, and the Chairman of the Committee of Heads of The Arab Authorities, Moder Younes.
As part of the meeting, MK Segalovich presented an overview of the activities of the "Safe Route" program during his tenure as Deputy Minister of Internal Security, a program which at the time led to a 16% decrease in the rate of murders in Arab society.
"Part of what we do makes it worse"
Yair Lapid said at the meeting: "I appreciate this meeting with you. I know that you are taking a risk. I know that it is not easy to be the head of an authority in the Arab society. We all remember Ghazi Saeb, a candidate in the elections, who was murdered in Abu Snan. We all remember Doctor Abd Al-Rahman, CEO of Tira Municipality, who was murdered near the police station in Tira. There are other candidates who had assassination attempts on their lives that failed. You are not supposed to live like this, no one should live like this.
I don't want to use this meeting to speak against the government, but we all know the truth: not enough is being done, and some of what is being done is making the situation worse, We don't tell ourselves stories, During the time we were in government, the number of murdered people decreased by 16%. since the current government was established, the number of murdered people increased by 65%.
You ask yourself, what has changed this year? The same commissioner, the same police, the same head of the Shin Bet, the same local government, the same civil society. The only thing that has changed is the government. A government came up that stopped everything we did, without offering anything instead. For me, this meeting is neither the beginning nor the end. It is part of a joint, multi-year work, we started it in the government, we will continue together in the opposition, and then we will continue together in the next government."
"Is it probable that 174 were murdered?!?"
The mayor of Umm al-Fahm, Dr. Samir Sobhi Mahamed said that: "In recent days, the State of Israel has been dealing with the Clause of Reasonability. I want to ask, is it likely that 174 were murdered and the government does nothing? Is it reasonable in a progressive country that the solved cases percentage in the Arab society is only 8%?
The current government is abandoning Arab society. The previous government activated the Safe-Route program which succeeded (with a joint effort) after years, in lowering the graph of the murders in Arab society. The current government left security in the hands of Ben-Gvir and the results corresponded."
