Is it time for the government to address crime in Arab society or should we wait for a few more Jewish casualties?

And now, unfortunately, a Jewish police officer has been murdered by the criminal gangs operating in Arab society. With all the sorrow and pain over this event, and with all my condolences to the family of the victim police officer, the late Niv Peretz, the most common sentence on social media in Arab society is: "Now the police will start acting."

Yes, and it's not long to come: a few hours after the policeman's fall, 14 people were arrested in connection with the incident, according to the police. And not only that: today, police officers who received favors from crime families in exchange for sensitive information they gave them were arrested! They received the favors a long time ago, and it was known for a long time, but they were only arrested now.

Should the police have waited for the murder of a Jewish citizen or police officer before they took action? And what about the lives of hundreds of Arab citizens who are murdered every year with weapons that fill the black market that the police have turned a blind eye to for more than 15 years?

What was the first minister responsible for the police, Ben Gvir, busy with in Arab society? The thing that occupied Minister Ben Gvir most of all with regard to Arab society, and still occupies him, was enforcing demolition orders for houses that had already been given demolition orders and had not been carried out, and issuing new demolition orders. Only two days ago, the minister was visiting the city of Umm al-Fahm, not to hear their problems, requests, and troubles, and especially their first problem, which is their personal security and their fight against organized crime and crime families, but to push for the issuance of new demolition orders for houses that had not yet been issued demolition orders!

The worsening of the issue of organized crime and crime in general in Arab society, and the ignoring of it and failure to participate in its solution, is not only the responsibility of the police and their minister, but is also the responsibility of the government, and even of the successive governments that stood, and still stand, in the position of an amused, if not encouraging, observer.

More than 1,300 Arab citizens have been murdered in murderous crimes since 2015 until the middle of this year. In all these years, Arab society has cried out, called out and pleaded with the competent authorities, especially the governments and the Israeli police, but it has been completely neglected in practice, and has only been inundated with promises, "allocated" budgets, the establishment of committees, etc. – and it was all for show and for election propaganda and the media only. And we all knew that this would only happen when Jews or police or the security establishment were harmed.

Has the time come? Or will we continue to wait for more victims on both sides?