Tel Aviv [Israel], August 28: Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday evening to protest against the policies of the right-wing religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The protests focused on the dramatic increase in crimes in Israel's Arab sector. Organisers said more than 100,000 participants attended a rally in the coastal city of Tel Aviv alone.
Israel's government is considering allowing authorities to detain suspected criminals in Arab communities in the country without charge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. The aim in using so-called administrative detention is to take decisive action against organized crime in Arab residential areas of the country, Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting.
"We will employ an iron fist, including the consideration of administrative restrictions and detentions in order to stop these terrible murders," Netanyahu said.
Arab residents of Israel have protested over rising crime rates, with some Arab leaders accusing Netanyahu's government of ignoring the problem or stoking divisions.
"Blood is flowing in our streets," said the mayor of the Arab city of Tira, MaamunAbdElhai, during a speech in Tel Aviv. A senior member of his municipality was shot dead near a police station in Tira on Monday.
The mayor accused Netanyahu's government of failing to crack down on the worsening crime levels in Arab society.
Those who appointed the far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as police minister "do not want to protect us," Elhai said.
Opposition leader YairLapid called Ben-Gvir a "pathetic racist and a total failure" during a speech in Karkur in the north of the country.
The opposition's goal is to "fight until this government falls," Lapid said.
Netanyahu on Sunday called crime in Arab communities "a national blight" and said that Jewish communities in Israel once also suffered under organized crime.
"We eliminated the majority of organised crime in the Jewish sector," Netanyahu said. "This is what we intend to do in the Arab sector as well."
The Arab minority makes up about 20 per cent of Israel's population of nearly 10 million.
Source: Qatar Tribune