https://arab.news/pmugt
Last year was the deadliest on record for Palestinian citizens of Israel, with 252 of them murdered, including 23 women. Already this year, 27 members of this community have been killed — and there does not seem to be any sign of respite.
It is a truism that the state’s role is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, all of them, without discrimination. This is one of the most basic tenets of the social contract between citizens and those who govern them. But when it comes to Palestinian citizens of Israel, the state has failed them for many years — and in a colossal and tragic way since the current government came to power more than three years ago.
A mixture of revulsion and exhaustion from living in constant fear has led ordinary Palestinian citizens of Israel to seek to conquer the terror. They have taken to the streets to protest what increasingly seem to be acts of deliberate incompetence by the government when faced with the duty to prevent an epidemic of murderous gun violence in their communities.
First, up to 100,000 people in Palestinian towns and villages took part in a general strike that culminated in a massive march through the northern city of Sakhnin. On Saturday, this was followed by a mass rally in Tel Aviv, where Muslims and Jews joined forces to demand that the government do what it is obliged to do and take positive action to stop these killings.
