Police in 2014 arrested seven times as many Arabs at illegal demonstrations as Jews, according to Israel Police data that was supplied to MK Esawi Freige (Meretz).

According to the statistics, the police arrested 1,472 Arab citizens for illegal assembly or association for political purposes in 2014, compared to 202 Jews. Israeli Arab leaders argue that the police have become what one called “an effective government tool for silencing the Arab public in Israel.”

Last August Haaretz reported on mass arrests during Operation Protective Edge, including those of people with no criminal record, for “disturbing the public order, forbidden assembly, rioting in a public place and violent acts against persons and property.” At the time the police said that it “enforces [at] disturbances equitably, using crowd-dispersal measures wisely to keep the streets quiet and secure.”

After that report appeared, Freige asked the police for a breakdown of the ethnic identity of those arrested, given claims of a high rate of arrests of Arab citizens for political activity. According to the data he received, 15 percent of the arrests for illegal assembly last year led to indictments. Forty-two percent of those incidents that led to indictments involved Arabs and 35 percent involved Jews.

When it came to arrests for incitement, the picture is similar. Last year 110 Arabs were arrested on suspicion of this crime, compared to 25 Jews. Moreover, 32 Arabs were arrested for flying the Palestinian flag, which is flown at nearly every political event in the Arab sector. On the other hand, in 2014 there were 176 Jews arrested on suspicion of rebellion and incitement to rebellion against the state, compared to only 112 Arabs.

The Israel Police responded that the ratio of charges filed in 2014 for cases that were opened in 2014 for these violations (illegally assembly, incitement, and raising the Palestinian flag) was 45 percent, with only a 3 percentage point difference overall between Jews and Arabs, though the percentages differed with the crime. Overall, 43 percent of the cases in which the suspects were Jews, at least one person involved was charged, while this was the case in 46 percent of the cases involving Arabs.

“We also stress that the data on arrests represents arrests that were made in 2014, but some of the cases for which these arrests were made were actually opened before that, while some of the indictments were filed after that year,” the police said.

Freige said in response, “Those who build on inflaming passions and hatred ought not to roll their eyes at the results. Violence and attacks are committed by the incited, but they are a direct result of the words of the inciters. In the State of Israel in 2015, some of the inciters are sitting and will continue to sit in the Israeli government.”