Ghadir Hani: "I'm terrified, but this is how we can combat deadly crime"

Ghadir Hani, a Palestinian leader of Standing Together, writes about the movement's campaigning against the discrimination, lack of social provision, and marginalisation that has allowed an epidemic of violent crime to develop in Palestinian communities in Israel.

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I want to tell you about what’s happening in my community, in Palestinian society in Israel. The government is oppressing my people – but not just through the occupation in the West Bank and the siege on Gaza. It’s also giving free rein to Palestinian criminal groups inside Israel’s borders to terrorise our communities with deadly violence.

An epidemic of organized crime is raging in our towns and cities, and it’s being pushed on by the government, which wants Palestinian society weak and fragmented. For years we’ve suffered under-policing, budget cuts, and a worsening socio-economic reality that has allowed organised crime groups to flourish.

Since the beginning of the year, 17 people have been killed. To be honest, I've never experienced anything like this in my life. We are terrified. But there’s another side of this story that I want to tell you about too.

At Standing Together, we’ve been building community resistance to the crime epidemic through our “resilience campaign” for months, and over the past few weeks, we’ve taken the fight to the streets in a massive show of force. We organized protests and mobilized thousands of Palestinians and Jews in a cry for government action to stop the rise in homicides. Our campaign is a national one, and it’s happening everywhere – from Tur’an and Shfaram in northern Israel to Tirabin al-Sana in the Negev/Naqab and even in front of Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, where I stood alongside the mother of Firas Abu Faneh, a Palestinian citizen who was murdered at his workplace two months ago, simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We’re organizing local leaders, demanding institutional change, and yesterday we opened a hotline to provide assistance to Palestinians under threat. I cannot overstate how serious this crisis is. That’s why I speak out on social media and in traditional media, including in an opinion piece that was just published. Here’s an excerpt from it:

“Just as we protested this week, we will not stop to act or call out for change until the bloodshed ends. We will not stop until we can promise every mother that her child, stepping out of the house even for a moment, will not be another victim of a stray bullet or a targeted killing because he belongs to a certain family… For the next girl or boy, for every parent that won’t lose their child. Enough.”

This is an excruciating time for me and my community, but it’s also a reminder of the immense power that we have as a collective. I’m so grateful for my friends and partners in this struggle, especially now. 

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Posted 21 January 2026