BICOM

Jamal Hakroush will today become the first Muslim Arab Deputy Commissioner in Israel’s police force, heading a special division to fight crime in Israel’s Arab communities.

The new division is part of a plan by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh to dramatically improve policing to combat the high crime rate within Israel’s Arab communities. Israel’s Arab population, which includes Muslims, Christians, Druze and Circassian communities, comprise almost one quarter of Israel’s overall population. Nonetheless, police figures show that 59 per cent of murders in Israel take place in Arab communities, as do 47 per cent of robberies and 32 per cent of reported property crime.

Israel’s Cabinet this week approved a plan costing several billion shekels which will see the construction of ten new police stations and the renovation of ten others in areas with a large Arab population. Erdan told Yediot Ahronot that “the police stations will be opened in the heart of every Arab community, large and small, in order to convey the message that the police is located inside the communities for the sake of the Arab public.”

Meanwhile, an extra 2,600 police officers will be recruited to serve in Arab communities. The Public Security Ministry hopes that at least half of these new recruits will come from Arab communities and will soon launch a campaign to this effect.

Hakroush will direct and oversee much of this effort to boost policing in Arab areas. He joined the Israeli police force in 1978 and has been serving as the deputy commander of the Coastal District since 2010. He previously commanded police stations in Afula, Nahariya and Haifa. Hakroush was also the first Muslim Arab to receive the rank of assistant commissioner, and also the first to serve as a deputy chief officer. He lives in Kfar Kana with his wife and four children.