Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levi said he will not seek to extend his term beyond 2027 if the force under his command fails to achieve significant progress in curbing crime in Arab communities, where violence and murder rates have continued to rise sharply.
Levi made the comments in a conversation with police station commanders across the country, according to details obtained by ynet. He reportedly told them that if measurable results are not achieved within the next year, he would step down at the end of his three-year term rather than request a fourth.
Levi, who took office in August 2024, is officially set to complete his term in August 2027. Police officials confirmed to ynet that he made the remarks, saying in a statement: “Upon taking office, the commissioner pledged to use all available means and resources to eradicate crime in Arab society, and he will continue to do so.”
Since the beginning of the year, 227 people have been killed in Arab towns and cities, compared with 211 during the same period last year — a sharp increase that has raised alarm among law enforcement officials. Seven people, most of them Arab citizens, were killed over the past weekend alone.
Police spokesman Aryeh Doron said at a media event in Eilat that the police cannot face the wave of crime on their own. “Everyone needs to get under the stretcher and help carry this together,” he said, using a Hebrew idiom for teamwork. “This is a national-scale crisis. It cannot be that an officer arrests an armed criminal and the suspect tells him, ‘By the time your shift ends, I’ll already be home,’ because the court releases him.”
Drive-by shooting in the northern Arab village of Iksal
(Video: Israel Police)
Doron added that the police are not responsible for releasing suspects. “We come to court with the evidence, and it’s not us who decide to release them,” he said. “We go all the way — we want to see justice done.”
Hundreds of protesters gathered Sunday outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, demanding that the government take stronger action to combat the violence. The demonstrators, many from Arab towns, accused the government and police of failing to act decisively against criminal organizations operating in their communities.
At the protest, Knesset member Ahmad Tibi said: “This demonstration brings together Arab community leaders, mayors, and families of murder victims — all crying out against a government that bears responsibility. I won’t say the national security minister is failing, because every time an Arab kills another Arab, Ben-Gvir smiles and feels he has succeeded. His party’s slogan is ‘Death to Arabs.’ This government is complicit in maintaining the rule of crime organizations in Arab society — deliberately. The neglect is deliberate, and the pain here is immense. This is a mother’s cry.”