Tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel are participating in a general strike to protest against rising violence and crime rates, accusing the Israeli police of failing to protect their communities.
The shutdown began on Tuesday in the northern Israeli city of Sakhnin, after the municipality, the popular committee and the general committee of parents called for an open-ended strike against rising gun violence and alleged Israeli complicity in organised crime.
Since then, several other Palestinian-majority areas have followed suit, making it among the largest protests in the community in years.
The strike comes amid a spike in crime in Palestinian communities in Israel, with 2025 described as the “deadliest year ever” by the NGO Abraham Initiatives.
In 2025, 252 Palestinians were recorded killed in criminal incidents, an increase on the 230 cases recorded in 2024.
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Since the start of this year, at least 19 Palestinians have been killed in criminal incidents.
The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, an umbrella organisation representing the community, said that “organised crime sponsored by the Israeli establishment is not fate. Fear is not an option.
“We want to live… we want to move forward with our children, with our land, with our homes, with our country, and with our people,” it added.
Balad, a political party representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, called on Wednesday for the demonstrations to grow, saying “participating in the movement is a national duty”.
In footage circulating online, protesters raised banners calling for an end to violence, organised crime, and police complicity in the insecurity endured in Palestinian areas of Israel.
Discriminatory laws and practices
For decades, Palestinian citizens of Israel have suffered from discriminatory laws and practices imposed by the Israeli state, despite possessing citizenship – including living under military rule between 1948 and 1966.
They are the descendants of the native residents of Palestine who were not expelled during the 1948 Nakba, when Zionist gangs forced 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland to create the state of Israel.
Although formally citizens of Israel, making up around 20 percent of the country’s 10 million population, they continue to face inequality, discrimination and repression.
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However, since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, these practices have only increased, with Israel passing more than 30 laws deepening a system of apartheid and repression against Palestinians.
According to a report in November by the legal centre Adalah, the new laws target a range of political and civil rights, including freedom of expression, protest and thought, citizenship and family life, equality and social rights, and the rights of detainees and prisoners.
“These new laws fundamentally violate the human rights of Palestinians,” Adalah said.
One is the expanded use of counterterrorism laws, applied almost exclusively to Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem.
Another slew of legislation channels state resources to Jewish Israeli reservists, providing tax, welfare, higher education and employment benefits that explicitly exclude Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The report also highlights the institutionalisation of temporary emergency measures.
Repeatedly renewed or made permanent, these measures enable widespread violations of detainees’ rights and punitive conditions for Palestinian prisoners.
Adalah said the laws are rooted in Israel’s constitutional framework, which prioritises “Jewish ethno-national supremacy”.