Crossing Israel’s Arab-Jewish divide, this former police officer joined an Islamist party

Yoav Segalovitz isn’t your typical Islamist party politician. For starters, he’s not even Muslim.

In the run-up to Israel’s general election on Oct. 27, Mr. Segalovitz, a former senior police commander and opposition lawmaker, joined the conservative Arab Muslim party Ra’am as the second candidate on the party list, an unprecedented move for a Jewish politician. His aim, he tells The Christian Science Monitor, is to form “a bridgehead” between the two societies at a time when Jewish-Palestinian dialogue and cooperation is at rock bottom.

Mr. Segalovitz says he also hopes “to break the paradigm” that has long stigmatized Arab inclusion in national government.

Why We Wrote This

A former Israeli police commander and member of parliament, who also happens to be Jewish, has joined an Islamist party ahead of parliamentary elections. Their top priority is fighting crime.

Led by Mansour Abbas, the Ra’am party has pushed for greater participation in Israeli politics, and made history by joining a short-lived Israeli government coalition in 2021. Nonetheless, bringing Mr. Segalovitz on board has turned plenty of heads in Israel.

“Every generation has a moment in which fear and hope stand in the same room,” Dr. Abbas said at a press conference announcing the merger on Aug. 31. “In this room this evening, hope has prevailed.”

The duo make unlikely allies. Mr. Segalovitz is a Jewish, liberal Zionist and former police officer from a small town in central Israel called Kadima-Zoran. He says he believes that “God and politics don’t go together.”

Dr. Abbas is a devout Muslim dentist from the Galilee region in the north of the country. He self-identifies as a Palestinian citizen of Israel and heads a socially conservative political party with ideological roots in conservative Islam.

“We don’t have to agree on everything, but certainly we don’t have to argue about everything,” says Mr. Segalovitz, who sports the close-cropped haircut of someone who spent his career in law enforcement. He also speaks with a calm, deliberate tone that’s rare among Israeli politicians. “I am largely putting narratives and identities aside to address things central to being an Israeli citizen,” he says.

Bar Cheft/Yoav Segalovitz’s office

Yoav Segalovitz says he doesn’t necessarily agree on everything with his fellow Ra’am party list members. But they are telling voters that if elected in October, they will work together to address the top priority for many Arab citizens of Israel, which is fighting crime.

Foremost on that agenda is crime.

Violent crime in Arab communities across Israel has skyrocketed in the past decade. Organized crime groups operate almost unchecked by police. Though they make up 20% of the population, two-thirds of the victims of violent crimes in 2025 were Arabs, according to statistics published by the Knesset in June.

Gun violence in Israel has increased more than threefold in the last 10 years, most of it concentrated in Arab communities. And last year, there were an unprecedented 308 murders nationwide – nearly 80% of the victims were Arab. Homicide convictions are rare.

“The murder cases are only the tip of the iceberg,” says Rawyah Handaqlu, founder of Eilaf, the Center for Promoting Security in Arab Society. Her organization has tallied 173 murders thus far in 2026, but that statistic only partly captures the “constant fear for one’s life,” as she puts it, that hangs over the Arab population of Israel.

“There’s a state within a state. Arab society lives under the rule of organized crime,” she says. The crisis is so severe and complex that only a holistic approach by the government – not just a single determined politician – can turn the tide, Ms. Handaqlu says.

Violent crime is by far the main issue for Arab voters in Israel, according to a public opinion survey published by Tel Aviv University in May.

Jess flom/JNA Press/Nexpher Images/Sipa USA/AP/file

Arab residents, community leaders, and activists take part in a protest in the city of Lod, calling for stronger action against organized crime and violence affecting Arab communities in Israel. Demonstrators accused the government of failing to adequately address the issue and demanded greater investment in public safety, law enforcement, and community protection. The rally highlighted growing concerns over crime rates and security in Arab towns and neighborhoods across the country.

Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-director of The Abraham Initiatives, a group promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence, says Israel’s national police service “hasn’t imposed law and order on Arab society, because it isn’t regarded as a public for whose benefit policing is done.”

Before entering politics in 2016, Mr. Segalovitz spearheaded investigations into high-profile corruption and organized crime cases. His department even helped put an Israeli president and prime minister behind bars. He was first elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in 2019 – and he served as deputy minister for public security in 2021.

That year saw a dip in murder rates, which have since shot up under the current Israeli government.

“The chances in Israeli politics … that someone fills a ministerial position and has the knowledge, the will, and the capabilities to deal with an issue are very rare,” says Mr. Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, adding that Mr. Segalovitz’s efforts earned accolades from Arab citizens of Israel. “He was simply the best person imaginable to deal with this issue.”

Mr. Segalovitz says he now finds himself at a unique crossroad. “Even if parts of Jewish and Arab society don’t agree with me, they can listen and understand the course of action,” he says. In the future, he says he hopes to see more politicians reach across the Arab-Jewish divide to work together.

By bringing Mr. Segalovitz on board, some political observers contend, party leader Dr. Abbas seeks to pave the way for Ra’am’s possible inclusion in the next Israeli government. Polls show that Ra’am is projected to maintain its current five seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament.

“They’re thinking about the day after the elections,” says Arik Rudnitzky, an expert on Arab society with the Israel Democracy Institute. “They think it will help Ra’am broadcast to Jewish parties: ‘We’re okay. We’re kosher. It’s alright to bring us into a coalition.’”

Most Jewish political parties have long rejected the idea of forging political alliances with Arab parties. Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted an AI-generated social media video smearing his main political rival, Gadi Eisenkot, by depicting him riding into office atop a Trojan horse, with Mansour Abbas himself hiding inside. This was just the latest of Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign trail invectives aimed at delegitimizing Arab voters and politicians.

Mr. Segalovitz’s historic political maneuver has drawn praise and disdain in equal measure, but he remains unfazed by critics. He says he joined Ra’am not only to fight crime.

“We need to look to the future, not to next week, not to the elections, to turning the state of Israel into a place that’s good and fitting to live in.”