Israel is considering using its internal security service to fight crime in Palestinian neighborhoods in Israel.
The Israeli Shin Bet, or Shabak as it is known in both Hebrew and Arabic, is the internal intelligence agency and one of three branches of the Israeli General Security Service.
After a meeting with top officials on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office instructed authorities to prepare for the agency’s involvement in combating criminal activity.
“Despite the difficulties, the capabilities of the Shin Bet must be used in the war against the mafia families in the Arab community,” Netanyahu is said to have said at the meeting, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Here’s what you need to know:
Is Shin Bet already active in Palestinian neighborhoods in Israel?
“The idea that the Shin Bet is not involved with the Palestinian community in Israel is false,” Amjad Iraqi, editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine, told Al Jazeera.
The agency is “very active in intelligence gathering. They have informants and collaborators and are constantly monitoring Palestinian civilians,” he explained.
Sawsan Zaher – a lawyer with her own human rights practice – shares this view. “The Shabak are already secretly involved in many issues among Palestinian citizens in Israel, as they have been seen as an enemy and a threat to security since the establishment of the state in 1948,” she told Al Jazeera.
The latest discussions are just a continuation of an “increasingly draconian shift by the Israeli security establishment” to further control the Palestinian community, Iraqi explained.
What powers does Shin Bet have that the police don’t have?
Shin Bet has access to a number of sophisticated intelligence-gathering facilities that the police are not allowed to use.
These include Pegasus spyware, which can infiltrate a mobile device via a text message that users click or, more recently, via “zero-click attacks”.
Messages, chats, phone calls, contacts and emails can be monitored by spyware.
Shin Bet can also use far-reaching, covert, and violent interrogation methods on its prisoners, preventing them from seeing their lawyers and ignoring due process.
Will this proposal go ahead?
There is opposition within the Israeli government to the deployment of Shin Bet in Palestinian neighborhoods in Israel.
According to Haaretz, Israeli officials argued that current laws do not allow Shin Bet and its operatives to mobilize against citizens of Israel and that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir does not authorize administrative detentions.
The Middle East Monitor, a non-profit press organization, reported that senior security officials believe it could divert vital manpower and resources from ongoing operations.
The Times of Israel also reported that the head of Shin Bet opposed the proposals during a meeting with the Prime Minister’s office.
Gali Baharav-Miara, the Attorney General of Israel, also argued that an active role with the police would risk revealing Shin Bet’s investigative methods in court if they convict anyone.
Netanyahu seems to have ignored these objections so far. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
What kind of crimes should Shin Bet tackle?
The issue of crime and killings has plagued the Palestinian community in Israel, referred to by Palestinians as the 1948-occupied territory or the occupied interior, who have long suffered discrimination and a lower standard of living there.
Crime has soared this year: The Times of Israel reported the number of Palestinians killed by violence in Israel at 102, compared to 35 at the same time in 2022.
Many also accuse the police of willful neglect. Zaher said the police “deliberately failed to fulfill their role as an enforcement authority so that they can let the Shabak enter”, which, she explained, allows for an “implementation of security tools” and would “further restrict freedoms”.
Iraqi explained that there is a deep-seated distrust of the Israeli police in these areas: “The core of it all is the truth that Palestinian citizens – even those who demand some form of law enforcement – cannot trust the police, cannot trust the security services . services, because they are entirely political tools projected by the state to impose their own kind of control or their own kind of violence.
Palestinian lawyer and political analyst Ziad Abu Zayed believes that “there is no real chance of fighting crime under the current Kahanist police inspector, who believes killing each other is an ‘Arab tradition'”.
In April, Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai was recorded saying that Palestinians are “killing each other. It’s in their nature,” in a private conversation with Ben-Gvir.