Roni Alsheikh
Roni AlsheikhHadas Parush/Flash 90

Israeli Arabs are "significantly" involved in violent offenses, Israel Hayom reported.

In a statistical report presented Sunday by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh to the Israeli government, figures show that Israeli Arabs commit 57% of all murder cases, 55% of attempted murders, 59% of all arsons, 45% of all robberies, 36% of property offenses, and 26% of drug trafficking offenses.

Israeli Arabs, in contrast, constitute 21% of Israel's population.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) blamed Arab MKs for the failure of law enforcement to affect Israeli Arabs and the Arab sector in general.

"The truth of the matter is that you are the ones who need to do some soul-searching about the lack of law enforcement and the number of murders in Arab society," he said, addressing the Arab MKs.

Alsheikh told Israel Hayom that this may not even be high enough because "it is impossible that the number of Israelis has grown while the number of cases has dropped." Other police sources suggested the possibility that the Arab public has lost faith in the effectiveness of the Israel Police, who have to put themselves in danger to arrest suspected Arab criminals, and therefore reports less crimes.

In February 2016, Arabs comprised 21% of Israel's population but were involved in an unprecedented 59% of murder cases. In August of the same year, Alsheikh noted the rampant crime in Arab neighborhoods and said reducing crime in Arab society was "a long process."

"We need to emphasize prevention, and understandably not to neglect enforcement," he said then. "There are criminal gangs among Israeli Arabs, including Palestinians of Judea and Samaria, and we are working and trying to achieve better results."