In a round table event of the internal auditors, which was held this morning (Monday, 12.6.23), at the Office of the State Comptroller in Jerusalem, Englman said:
"For a long time, we have been alerting about the severe defects in the handling of violence in Arab society. In 2021 we published a comprehensive report about how the Israel Police is dealing with the possession of weaponry and shooting incidents in the Arab localities. Even then the report raised highly worrisome findings:
94% of the suspects in all shooting incidents in Israel came from Arab society.
The rate of indictments filed in shooting offences files totaled just 5%.
In 2019 only 19 weapons had been collected in the Police's weapons collection campaigns.
Alongside this, the budget execution rate of the plan for reinforcing governance in the Arab sector totaled just 47%.
The report's recommendations dealt with the duty of the law enforcement agencies to act to collect weapons and file indictments in Arab society in order to restore the personal safety of all the residents of Israel and in particular those from Arab localities.
We have also published reports concerning the "Guardian of the Walls" events in the mixed cities and governance in the Negev.
Also, last month we published a report concerning the inaction of youth in Arab society. We showed that about 57,000 of the Arab youth aged 18-24 (29% of this age group) are inactive and involved in ever-increasing crime, and this leads to an increase in the loss of human life. The report contains many recommendations on how to handle the inaction.
I call upon the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security to act to rectify the defects which were raised in the State Comptroller's reports concerning the eradication of crime in Arab society.
As State Comptroller the matter causes me sleepless nights, and the Government must give it top priority. We shall track the effectiveness of the Government's actions within the framework of the follow-up report concerning the war against violence in Arab society, on which we shall shortly commence work".