Recent months have seen a surge in violence between Israeli security forces, Arab-Israelis, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, over Tel Aviv's planned seizure of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, as well as the police occupation of one of the main shrines of Islam. Last month, tensions escalated into an 11-day military conflict.
Informants working for Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, are responsible for “most” of the violence in the Arab sector, Israel's Channel 13 has reported, citing an informed source.
According to the source, a senior police officer complained about the situation to colleagues at a recent high-level meeting at Israeli Police headquarters, with the security agency blamed for the police's inability to get a handle on the recent spike in violence, including inter-ethnic clashes between Arabs and Jews, in cities where representatives of both communities are present.
Shin Bet denied the allegations made in the report, calling the information “false” and saying it “has no basis and no connection with factual data” in a comment for Channel 12. The security agency went on to boast that its recent operations have “led to the arrest of hundreds of suspects who have been prosecuted,” among them “dozens” “for serious terrorist offences with nationalist motivation.”
Boiling Tensions
The allegations come in the wake of the ongoing spike in…
