Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Social Equality Minister May Golan, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced a dramatic move Tuesday to bring the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, into the fight against surging crime in the Arab sector—working alongside the Israel Police.
The decision follows Channel 14’s “Takaddum” investigation series by Yishai Friedman, which exposed how billions of shekels from the five-year Arab sector development plan (Plan 550), approved by the previous government, actually flowed into the hands of armed crime organizations.
Under the new initiative, hundreds of millions of shekels will be redirected from the five-year plan to strengthen the Shin Bet’s and police’s enforcement and intelligence capabilities. Netanyahu welcomed the move and emphasized it represents a significant escalation in the fight against crime. “We’ve decided to intensify the war on Arab crime. Thanks to you, May, and the efforts you led, we brought hundreds of millions of shekels to bring the Shin Bet in and help the Israel Police,” he said.
Golan called the decision unprecedented and thanked the prime minister for his support. “Thank you for supporting this historic move to bring in the Shin Bet, finally, to help eradicate crime. We will save lives with this move,” she said.
Golan addressed the crime-busting program on the C14 Israel Debrief yesterday (Monday), telling Channel 14 in English that Mansour Abbas, the “real boss” of the former Bennett-Lapid government, knew a 30 billion shekel plan he controlled was funding the crime organizations behind a wave of murders in the Arab sector.
Ben-Gvir also addressed the budget transfer, saying the funds will now go toward fighting crime instead of reaching criminal elements. “We’re taking money from Mansour Abbas’s plan, which went to protection rackets and crime anyway, and transferring it to the Shin Bet and Israel Police to act against criminals and offenders,” he said.
Alongside the announcement, Minister David Amsalem held an emergency conference Tuesday led by the Government Companies Authority and the headquarters for combating crime in Arab society. The conference, attended by representatives from the police, prosecution, tax authority, and other government agencies, presented core challenges in fighting crime organizations—including extortion and protection rackets, takeover of public tenders, and attacks on national infrastructure.
Amsalem made clear the fight must expand to the economic arena as well. “Crime organizations won’t be stopped just in the streets if we don’t also stop them from trying to take over tenders, national infrastructure, and public funds,” he wrote. According to him, the government is working to strengthen governance and prevent criminal elements from seizing state resources and public money.