Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai was recorded saying last week that Arab-Palestinians in Israel “murder each other. It’s in their nature,” Channel 12 reported on Tuesday evening.
Israel Police Commissioner said is the “mentality” of Arabs to kill, in a phone call with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that the latter leaked to the press. According to the anti-violence campaign group the Abraham Initiatives, 43 Arab citizens in Israel have been killed in violent incidents since the start of 2023.
![](https://maki.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/pic01137.jpg)
Israel’s Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai (third from left) with the National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Photo: Israeli National Security Ministry)
The comments were made during a conversation that the two men were having about the national guard that Ben Gvir is seeking to establish, ostensibly in part to combat record-high crime rates in Arab communities. Ben Gvir and Shabtai have been feuding intensely for over a week over the national guard, with the police commissioner warning against placing the nascent force under the authority of the far-right and racist minister. The decision to leak damning contents of their private conversation appeared to bring ties between the minister in charge of the police and the commissioner to a new low.
MK Ayman Odeh, who chairs the Hadash-Ta’al list, called for Shabtai to be fired over the comments. He also maintained that they were factually inaccurate. “The number of Arab-Palestinians killed in [criminal incidents in] Israel is seven times higher than the number of Palestinians killed [in criminal incidents] in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and Jordan,” Odeh tweeted. “This is not the nature of the Palestinians; it is the nature of the racist establishment. In any other country, a racist commissioner like Shabtai would be fired in an instant. Shabtai, resign!” he added.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=30928