On August 4, Mohammed Hijab, 19, from the village of Sheikh Danun, was shot and killed. That same day, Saher Ibrahim, 29, from Sajur, was also murdered. Later that night, Daya Abu Sharif, 25, from Jaljulya, was gunned down too. The following day, Tareq Bidas, 18, from Lod, met the same fate.
On August 16, Ali Hadid, 26, from Daliat al-Carmel, died from wounds sustained in a shooting a few days earlier. That same day, Omar Abu Jamaa, 50, from Segev Shalom, was shot dead.
Just two days ago, Rosette Jarban, 23, from Jisr al-Zarqa, was murdered. A surveillance camera recorded her final moments: she was walking through a narrow alley in the village when a car passed by. A man stepped out, pulled a pistol, and fired several shots. She collapsed slowly to the ground. The video lasts 19 seconds. That's how long it takes to kill someone with a gun.
This grim reality mostly exists in WhatsApp groups and Arab media. For Hebrew-language outlets, murdered Arabs are a marginal, almost invisible story. Their deaths are often reduced to brief mentions. No photos, no background, no community voices, no human context. They appear as cold, disposable statistics.
When I read these names, day after day, something inside me tightens. But it seems most people in this country feel nothing. They've learned to treat murders in Arab communities like they treat weather reports. This isn't the result of "information overload." It's a public, moral, and media-driven choice. When an entire society becomes numb to the death of others, it is in fact declaring that those lives are worth less.
The Israeli government's abandonment of Arab citizens is not theoretical. It's concrete and tangible. Killers leave home knowing no one will really chase them. Journalist Josh Breiner reported that police managed to solve only 36 out of 240 murders last year, a pattern that repeated the year before. He noted that the police "are quick to blame Arab society, the prosecution and the courts – but rarely take a hard look at their own failures."
According to The Abraham Initiatives, an NGO promoting equality for Arab citizens of Israel, 159 people have been murdered in Arab communities since the start of 2025. That's up from 142 in the same period in 2024 – a 12-percent increase.
That's the way it is in Arab communities: everyone is responsible for their own safety. Public spaces have become crime scenes: streets, stores, gas stations, wedding halls, parking lots. Day or night, people are shot in the open. Hired gunmen do the dirty work for others, paid tens of thousands of dollars for each job.
For me, stopping at a gas station or a store is dangerous. That's the mindset I, and many in my community, live with daily. This reality is repressed and silenced, along with the understanding that any one of us could be killed by a stray bullet, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'm not even pretending to offer solutions. No one is listening. There is only indifference. Let them die, as long as it doesn't involve Jews. Let them keep killing each other.
In his apathy, his refusal to engage, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has succeeded in getting large segments of the Jewish public to adopt his values when it comes to Arabs. His values have taught people to shrug – to feel nothing – each time they read about another murder in our community.