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Violence Continues to Plague Israeli Arab Communities
Then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist party Raam at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 13, 2021. Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
Medics found Khaled Ahmed Hussein’s black pickup truck wrapped around a tree in Deir Hanna in northern Israel; the front windows were shattered. Assailants shot and killed Hussein, the cousin of the town council chief, last week.
Hussein was the 124th Arab citizen of Israel to be murdered since the start of the year, putting 2024 on pace to be the bloodiest year on record for the country’s Arab communities. Hussein’s murder illustrates the checkered progress of a minority that comprises around 20 percent of Israel’s population.
Prior to Hamas’ October 7 massacre, Israeli Arabs were enduring a wave of internal violence. 2023 was by far the deadliest year for Israeli Arab communities, eclipsing the previous year’s record number of killings. The situation had gotten so bad that community leaders, normally reluctant to involve the state in internal matters, asked Israeli intelligence services to help.
Most of the killings have resulted from gang violence or intimidation. This violence is filling the vacuum left by Israel’s crackdown on Jewish crime families in the early 2000s. Even politicians and their families have increasingly become targets, possibly to intimidate them into giving criminals free rein. In a separate incident on the day of Hussein’s murder, an Israeli court indicted two cousins for murdering a security guard for Taybeh’s mayor back in April.
An inability to repay loansharking debts has led to many of these murders. In some cases, Israeli Arabs borrow from within their community out of distrust or disdain for the formal Israeli banking system. But Israeli banks can also be reluctant to meet the borrowing needs of Israeli Arabs, who often lack the collateral needed to secure loans. Relatedly, Israeli Arab communities tend to suffer from state neglect, inferior education, and high poverty rates. But internal factors, such as the breakdown of family structures and high indebtedness, have also led to this problem.
Hamas’ deadly October 7 rampage through southern Israel overshadowed the internal Arab violence. The terrorist group did not discriminate between Arabs and Jews. To Hamas, both were Israeli and therefore marked for death.
That dark day also witnessed rays of hope and humanity, as Israeli Arabs risked their lives to rescue their Jewish compatriots. For example, Hamas murdered medic Awad Darawshe as he treated wounded Israelis. Many Israeli Arabs are serving in the Israeli army, and some have even paid the ultimate price to defend the state.
An Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll published in November 2023 found that 70 percent of Israeli Arabs felt connected to the state, up from 48 percent before the war. And internal violence plummeted in the final two months of 2023.
But perhaps that was a blip. Some Israeli Arabs might have temporarily felt a sense of unity and loyalty. An increased police presence and Israeli security forces’ elevated alertness might have convinced crime families to lay low. But now the murders have resumed, and a March IDI poll found that Israeli Arab affiliation with the state reverted to its pre-war levels.
Progress for the Arab sector in Israel has been on a whiplash trajectory for years. In March 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Arab high voter turnout as a political bogeyman. But in December, his government allocated billions of dollars to the Arab sector, ameliorating the “poverty and underdevelopment” that have contributed to the “acute crisis of violence and crime,” according to a leading non-profit focused on Israeli Arabs.
During Israel’s clash with Hamas in May 2021, some Arabs in mixed cities launched attacks on their Jewish neighbors. Weeks later, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid shattered the taboo on including Arabs in the governing coalition. The new approach bore fruit in October, when the Bennett-Lapid coalition allocated even more money to the Arab sector and launched a five-year plan to curb violence and crime in Israeli Arab communities.
However, at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions, Benjamin Netanyahu tried to make the coalition’s inclusion of an Arab party a political liability. This, coupled with destabilizing moves by the Arab party, contributed to the government’s downfall. Netanyahu’s new government froze — but ultimately released — $50 million from the Bennett-Lapid plan. In a more symbolic development, on July 7, the Netanyahu government approved the establishment of Israel’s first museum of Arab culture.
But some Israeli Arab extremists have played a part in stunting their integration into Israeli society. In October, the Arab owner of a bike shop in Taybeh donated bikes to nearby Jewish kids affected by the Hamas attacks. A few days later, Israeli Arab extremists looted and torched his shop. And since October 7, such extremists have carried out numerous attacks on their Jewish countrymen, creating further distrust and tension among their respective communities.
Progress in Israeli Arab integration has often been two steps forward and one step back, and sometimes even one step forward and two steps back. With the post-October 7 moment of unity now in the rearview mirror, the state must work hard to gain the trust of its Arab citizens. But Israeli Arabs must also diligently secure their integration; integration is a two-way street. This is the only way Arabs and Jews can live securely in their shared country.
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Noy Barel is a research intern. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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