Crime as a Unifying Issue: Supporting the Palestinians of 1948 is a National Responsibility

Colonialism has sought since its inception to dismantle the Palestinian people by forcibly separating its geographical, political, and social components. This separation did not arise from a fleeting historical course; rather, it was formed as a conscious policy aimed at breaking the unity of the Palestinian collective and weakening its capacity for collective action, transforming it into separate enclaves, each with different living conditions and varied demands.

This reality was presented as a fixed political and legal fate, while at its core, it obscured the logic of colonial control based on breaking apart the administered society and managing its internal crises instead of addressing it as a single political entity. This dismantling does not create separate dangers pertaining to each Palestinian community alone, but rather generates a structural danger that affects all Palestinians; for when colonialism strikes a part of the national body, it bets on exhausting the whole.

In this context, organized crime and rampant killing within the Palestinian community in the territories occupied in 1948 become a direct expression of this structural danger. What makes the ongoing violence a nationwide threat that affects the entire Palestinian condition, not just a localized crisis pertaining solely to Palestinians within the interior.

Recent years have witnessed a sharp rise in crime and murder rates within the Palestinian community in the interior; approximately 525 Palestinians were killed during the year 2025, according to data from human rights organizations and media coverage. This escalation cannot be understood as a sudden social deviation or the result of internal cultural malfunction, as the Israeli discourse attempts to portray, but rather as a result of a long process of structural policies that have accumulated the conditions for violence.

The dominant political and media discourse in Israel attempts to place the responsibility for this reality on the Palestinian community itself, portraying crime as a product of an internal culture of violence or a failure in social values, or a breakdown in upbringing and self-control. This discourse is not innocent; it shifts the responsibility from public policies to the victim, exonerating the ruling system from its structural role in producing violence.

From here, treating crime within the context of 1948 as an isolated internal matter is a limited and dangerous approach. This crime is not a local security issue nor a social crisis separated from the political context, but rather a part of the colonial control system that manages Palestinians through crises. Therefore, this phenomenon requires comprehensive Palestinian support from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the diaspora, based on partnership and an understanding that the danger is the same even if its forms and geographical boundaries differ.

This support begins with conscious media advocacy. Sharing publications, statements, and announcements calling for a fight against crime and reducing killings takes the issue out of its narrow local scope and breaks the media isolation imposed on the victims. Media here is not merely the transmission of news or an expression of moral sympathy, but a tool for shaping awareness and political pressure. When a Palestinian from the West Bank, Gaza, or abroad participates in disseminating this discourse, he links crime to its national context and grants it broader presence in the Arab and international spheres, preventing it from being treated merely as an internal problem that concerns only those in the territories occupied in 1948.

The second course involves contributing to exposing the colonial role in the proliferation of crime. This requires a clear analytical discourse based on data that dismantles the narrative blaming the Palestinian community itself. Highlighting the discrimination in law enforcement, the deliberate leniency towards the spread of arms, and the reluctance in investigation and accountability, redefines crime as a result of policy rather than a product of culture or ingrained social dysfunction. This dismantling is essential to prevent the use of crime as a tool for collective demonization and to transform it into a matter of political and legal accountability that targets the structure of governance itself.

Third, launching campaigns to support popular movements demanding an end to crime is a crucial element in converting local anger into national pressure. The movements that have arisen in Palestinian towns within 1948 express an increasing awareness of the gravity of the current reality, yet they face attempts to diminish and distort their message. When digital and media campaigns in the West Bank and Gaza coincide with these movements, local voices transform into a unifying national echo. Uniting messages, slogans, and timing enhances the sense of a shared fate and confirms that Palestinians are moving as one political group despite attempts to separate them.

Fourth, there is a growing need to establish or publicly participate in a unified Palestinian observatory for crime within the territories occupied in 1948. A professional observatory involving legal experts from various Palestinian regions that documents crimes, gathers data, monitors investigation paths, and issues accurate periodic reports. The existence of such an observatory prevents the loss of figures, confronts official manipulation of data, and provides a database serving media, rights activists, and researchers. It also creates a community support space for the families of the victims and shifts crime from being a passing news item to a systematically monitored and questioned file.

This course does not exempt the Palestinian community itself from the responsibility of enhancing its internal immunity or diminishing the importance of local initiatives in prevention and awareness, but it places this responsibility in its proper context. A society living under a system of discrimination and colonialism cannot be asked to bear the entire burden. Shifting the responsibility onto the victim serves the colonizer, while dismantling the structure that produces violence opens prospects for conscious collective action and redirects anger towards its true source.

Palestinians in the interior, the West Bank, Gaza, and the diaspora can designate one day each year or season for solidarity with the victims of crime in the territories of 1948. On this day, the names of the victims and their documented stories will be published, unified digital campaigns will be launched under the same slogan, and symbolic simultaneous vigils will be organized where possible, emphasizing the discourse that holds structural policies responsible for the proliferation of violence. In this way, crime transforms from a recurring news item into a national unifying issue.

Ultimately, crime within the territories occupied in 1948 is considered a comprehensive national threat. The colonialism that seeks to separate Palestinians needs a confrontation that goes beyond partial reactions, a confrontation that reconnects what has been severed and transforms solidarity from a fleeting moral stance into a daily political practice. When Palestinians everywhere realize that the security of Palestinians in the interior is an integral part of their collective security, confronting crime becomes an inherent part of a broader battle against the colonial dismantling project itself.