Published: 29 October 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THREE LOGOS OF the Israel Police and the municipality appeared on a document being passed around outside a home in the northern town of Shfaram, where representatives of two families had gathered this month. They were trying to avert the rekindling of a blood feud following a fight between two young men.
The document bore the headings “Mediation Committee” and “Arbitration Agreement,” under which space was left for the details. At the end of the second page there was room for the two sides to sign after the signatures of the “committee members,” which included local notables and local council members. With the details and the signatures, the sulha – reconciliation – agreement would become official.
The sulha – a traditional Arab ceremony that sets down reconciliation conditions between two parties in dispute – has no legal status in Israel.
Still, the police often cooperate with the ceremony in criminal cases in Arab society, in an effort to calm the situation – and now amid protests against alleged inaction in combating gun violence in the Arab community.
FULL STORY The Israel police’s secret (non-violent) weapon for quelling violence in the Arab community (Haaretz)
How Israel is deterred by a handful of violent Jewish settlers (Haaretz)
AMOS HAREL: This handful has the sympathy of countless others
READ MORE
Police botched investigation into shooting of Arab MK, report finds (+972)
Human rights group demands Israel Police reopen its case into the 2017 shooting of Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh in the head with a sponge-tipped bullet after finding the initial investigation was ‘negligent.’
Photo: Police on the beat in Afula (Gil Eliahu)
