Unreported World
Inside Israel's Unsolved Murders
In Israel, a murder epidemic is devastating Arab-Israeli communities. Krishnan Guru-Murthy investigates why most of these killings go unsolved. With much focus on the conflict in Gaza and rising hostilities in the West Bank, Krishnan asks why hundreds of Arab-Israeli citizens are being murdered each year in Israel itself? Arab citizens make up one-fifth of Israel's population, but nearly three-quarters of its murder victims. When Israeli-Jews are murdered around 75 percent of cases are solved, compared to around 15 percent when the victim is Arab-Israeli. Krishnan discovers Arab organised crime families tightening their grip on towns long neglected by the state. In some areas, residents say they're living under gang rule and accuse Israel's right-wing government of turning a blind eye to the killings. In the coastal town of Jisr az-Zarqa, Krishnan meets families mourning sons shot dead in the street and mothers who say the police never even came to take witness statements. He meets a former gangster who says weapons from Israel's own police and army are being sold to criminals. While community figures and an opposition politician accuse the government of deliberately abandoning Arab citizens to lawlessness and fear, Israel's police say it's doing everything it can to stop the violence