The increasing crime rate in Arab society stood at the center of two of the discussions held last week (11-15.6.2023) in the Knesset State Control Committee.
Last Monday (12.6.2023) State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman, announced that his office would shortly commence a follow-up audit which would examine the effectiveness of the Government's actions in the fight against violence in Arab society.
The following day (13.6) the Committee convened to discuss the follow-up report published by the Comptroller in May 2021, concerning how the Israel Police is dealing with the possession of illegal weapons and shooting incidents in Arab and mixed localities.
The 2021 report found that 94% of the suspects in all shooting incidents in Israel came from the Arab society, but the rate of the indictments filed in the shooting offenses files totaled just 5%. The audit then found that during 2019 only 19 weapons had been collected in the Police's weapons collection campaigns – and alongside this the rate of budgetary execution of the program for reinforcing the governance in the Arab sector had totaled just 47%.
The Director of the Government Ministries and Institutions Audit Division, Yuval Hayu, told the Knesset members that "The State Comptroller has announced that it is his intention to launch additional follow-up action in order to see how the matters are progressing. In the two previous reports we tracked how the Government of Israel is implementing a five-year plan in this important and sensitive area. There was a low level of implementation and limited progress from the point of view of achieving significant targets. There is no doubt that these indicators – the existence of a clear, budgeted plan and following the direction of the targets which will reduce crime, violence, shooting incidents and murder victims – they will be our compasses in the coming follow-up examination".
Hayu further updated that the State's audit work on the Israel Police's use of technological means is in advanced stages: "I assume that after the holidays we will already be issuing drafts to the audited bodies for their response".
At the end of the meeting, a discussion was held on the Comptroller's report which dealt with governance in the Negev. The report's findings were presented by the Director of the Economics and National Infrastructures Audit Division, Tzachi Saad, and the Director of Department B in the Division, Hanan Fogel.
The report, which was published in August 2021, warned that despite the Government budgeting provided under the Government Decisions over the years, within the framework of the five-year plan, in the scope of NIS 1.7 billion, which were designed to reduce the gaps between the sectors, and despite the allocation of current budgets to the local authorities and the Bedouin regional councils in the Negev, there are still considerable gaps between the Bedouin localities and the other localities in the Negev.
The Committee reconvened on Wednesday (14.6.2023) to discuss the report published by the Comptroller in May 2023, about the situation concerning the hospitalization of children. The report's findings were presented by Dan Bental, Department Director in the Social and Welfare Audit Division, and Moshe Yechiel Ginzburg, an Audit Director in the Division.
The audit found, among other things, that in 2019 the average occupancy in the general wards, including the children's wards, totaled 91%. This figure is higher than the average occupancy in the OECD countries, which totals 76%.
"This means extreme crowdedness throughout the year", stressed Bental. "There are times when it reaches 130% occupancy in some of the hospitals. It is very crowded, mainly in the large hospitals".
Bental also referred to the severe shortage of medical staff: "We found that the staff who are treating our children at the HMOs are not specialist physicians. I would have expected that there would be as many specialist physicians as possible. Children who need to see a neurologist or a child development specialist are held up because due to the shortage they have to wait a very long time for appointments. Alternatively, they are compelled to resort to private medicine, which increases the inequality in Israel".
