Rise in crime in Palestinian communities inside Israel has claimed the life of 18-year-old Ahmad Shadi Essa who was declared dead this morning after he was stabbed and critically wounded last night in the central town of Kafr Qasim.

He is victim number 49 of this wave of crime since the start of this year, according to reports.

Another Palestinian, a youth in the twenties of age, also sustained serious injuries after being stabbed by assailants in the village of Drijat, in the Naqab region. No perpetrators were detained by the Israeli Police in any of the two incidents.

Palestinians in Israel have blamed the Israeli Police for not taking any serious action to fight the rise in crime in their communities and failing to arrest anyone involved in the shootings or stabbings that often lead to death, saying that if this was the case in Jewish cities, the police would have acted swiftly and effectively to apprehend criminals.

An Israeli TV report said last week that, according to a senior police officer, police have their hands tied in dealing with violent crimes in the Arab communities because the criminals are in most cases informants for the Israeli security service, the Shin Bet, and therefore cannot be apprehended by the police.

Palestinians in today’s Israel are those who stayed on their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country’s nine million people.

By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other essentials.

Palestinians have long blamed the Israeli police for turning a blind eye to gun violence among Palestinian-Israelis and even complicity with criminal gangs.

M.N

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency