Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately depriving the country’s Palestinian Arab citizens of security. In a post on X, Golan claimed that more than 700 killings in three years demonstrate Netanyahu’s appointed minister’s intentional neglect of Arab citizens’ lives. He further alleged that Netanyahu handed internal security to a person previously convicted of arson, enabling criminal groups to take control of certain areas.

According to an Al Jazeera report cited in the article, Palestinian citizens in Israel have long faced discriminatory laws and violence. In 2025, about 300 people were killed in the country, including 252 Palestinian citizens. Official census data from 2019 recorded around 1.9 million Palestinian citizens in Israel, most of them descendants of Palestinians who remained during the 1948 establishment of the state.

Historical accounts note that around 750,000 Palestinians were displaced or forced to leave during Israel’s founding, with thousands killed at that time.