Last Monday (27.2.23) the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman held a special exposure to Arab Society day. About 70 senior staff members, including many heads of Arab authorities, arrived at the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman in Haifa. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman presented before the participants the audit reports which had been published in recent years concerning Arab-Israeli society.
"One of the important reports we published came about following the reality where time and time again Arab Israeli citizens find themselves victims of crime on the Arab street", Englman said. "The report about weapons in Arab society that we had published in the past unearthed difficult findings: there were 9,216 shooting incidents in the entire population in 2019. 94% of the suspects of the shooting offenses are members of Arab society. Indictments were filed in only in 5% of the shooting offenses. Likewise, despite the mass recruitment carried out in recent years, the number of Muslim police officers serving in the Israel Police has increased very moderately from 2.5% to 3.4%. The Prime Minister's Office and the various ministries must complete the discourse with the representatives of Arab society and implement a program for dealing with crime and violence in Arab society".
The Comptroller also spoke about the reports that examined the municipal services in the mixed cities and the actions for increasing road safety within the jurisdiction of the local authorities in Arab society.
"We recently finished writing an audit report in the matter of the government handling of inaction among young people in Arab society. The report will be published during the next few months", said the Comptroller. "Among other things, we examined the government decisions dealing with young people and the budgets allocated for this. We have also examined the activity of the education system for preventing inaction, the transition year programs, the Employment Service and the Labor Branch activity for integrating young Arabs into the labor market. We also examined the obstacles to the integration of young Arabs in higher education institutions. Encouraging the employment of young people in Arab society has supreme importance for the State of Israel and preventing the erupting crime in Arab society. Meeting this challenge may reduce socioeconomic gaps, improve the young people's self-image, reduce the scope of crime and lead to an improvement in the standard of living and work productivity. In this way we can also improve the productivity of the entire Israeli economy".
Majdi Attila, a department director at the Office of the Ombudsman, presented before the participants a survey of the activity of the Office of the Ombudsman for investigating complaints concerning Arab society. State Comptroller Englman summed up and said that "We did not decide to hold this exposure day in vain. I attach great importance to our acting as a mouth, eyes and ears for populations whose voice is less heard. Therefore, we are also investigating complaints at the offices of the Ombudsman in Nazareth, Lod and Beersheba which are open to assist in the injustices that the Arab population is dealing with".