Homicides in Israeli Arab societies rising at unprecedented rate - study

Crime among Israeli Arab society has been rising at an unprecedented rate in the past year, with 2023 seeing more than double the number of homicides than 2022, according to research published on Sunday by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel.

The Taub Center is an independent, non-partisan socioeconomic research institute in Israel, and has conducted a study that examines homicides within both the Arab and Jewish populations in Israel - which are not the result of terrorist acts.

The study stated that within Israeli Arab society, there were 233 in the last year, which is more than double in 2022 - which was 109. Homicides within the Israeli Jewish population were much less severe overall but still increased between 2022 and 2023 - increasing from 38 to 66 respectively.

Prof. Alex Weinreb, an expert in demography and Research Director at the Taub Center, said that the increase in homicides in Arab society is concerning, and that "Although we are not able to cite a single cause for this, we can surmise that it is related to changes in policy and treatment of violence in Arab society in that year.” 

Young men most likely involved in homicides

The study also concluded that homicides in Israel are most prevalent among young men. Where from 2011 until last year, the number of Jewish men between the ages of 20-34 increased by 10%, while in Arab society it increased by 46%. However, around those years, the homicide rates among Israeli Jews decreased by about 60%.

The center also compared the rate of homicides of Arabs to Jews in Israel to Blacks and Whites in the United States. The ratio of homicides in 2023 in Israel is 13:1 between Arabs and Jews, and in the US it's 8:1 between Blacks and Whites.

The Taub Center concluded that compared to other high-income countries, the Israeli Arab population's homicide rate is among the highest, with 4.9 per 100,000, more than seven times the amount within the Jewish population, which is 0.67 per 100,000.

Comparing Israel to 32 OECD countries on homicide rates, Prof. Weinreb, said that "Arabs in Israel climb to third place in number of homicides, behind only Mexico and Colombia, while Jews' ranking climbed but remained lower than the average in the other high-income countries.”

The Taub Center expects a slowdown in the increase of homicides among Israeli Arabs aged 20-34 but also expects an increase among Jews in that exact age group.