Pini Badash after Shin Bet warning: "I'm like Cato the Elder - 30 years shouting"

Pini Badash, former head of the Omer Regional Council, warns following Shin Bet chief David Zini's alerts about armed gangs in the Negev. Badash claims he has been warning for 30 years, and that the Bedouin minority that does not follow the law poses a strategic danger. He calls for a national project, protests the lack of governance and punishment, and points to failures in the police, judicial system, and education.

Pini Badash, former head of the Omer Regional Council, warns following Shin Bet chief David Zini's alerts about armed gangs in the Negev. In an interview with 103FM, Badash says he is "like Cato the Elder, shouting for thirty years" and that many have stopped calling him a racist and begun to understand the severity of the problem. According to him, the Bedouin minority that does not follow the law poses a strategic danger, and "ten or twenty percent is enough - they are tens of thousands." He claims he warned about the attacks during Operation Guardian of the Walls and that the traffic arteries were blocked. Badash calls for a combined solution involving the police, judicial system, and education. He criticizes the police for being unfamiliar with Shin Bet data, and claims that buying a gun on the open market is cheaper than in a store. Badash rejects claims of a shortage of prison space and notes that Ktziot Prison stands empty. He argues that judges are afraid to impose harsh punishments, and that the education system in the Bedouin sector is lacking, with only 10% of children knowing how to speak Hebrew. According to him, the path from non-integration into the job market to crime organizations is short.