Netanyahu said he visited a Bedouin city, the city mayor claims he didn't

Netanyahu claimed he had gone to Rahat to announce the allocation of NIS 1 billion to eradicate crime in the Arab sector. The Mayor claims he never visited.

Netanyahu meeting Bedouin leadership in Tirabin. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Netanyahu meeting Bedouin leadership in Tirabin.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he will allocate NIS 1 billion to eradicate crime in the Arab sector. 
The question is, where exactly did he say it? While he claimed on Sunday to have announced the plan in the Bedouin city of Rahat along with Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, the city's Mayor, Faiz Abu Sahiban, later denied that Netanyahu had ever visited, saying that the municipality rejected the Prime Minister's request to speak due to its proximity to the election.
On Thursday, Abu Sahiban sent a letter to Netanyahu regarding his request to speak in Rahat. "Your office contacted the aforementioned Rahat municipality and we held a board meeting last night regarding the visit," Abu Sahiban wrote to Netanyahu.
"Since the visit during the election period is very sensitive and is perceived as a purely political visit, a decision was made in the Rahat municipality to plead that you to postpone the visit until after the election."
“You deserve to live in Rahat and any other town without mothers being afraid to send their children outside and without the fear of violence, of blackmail or protection,” Netanyahu said, allegedly in Rahat. “We will destroy that.”
Netanyahu said he had traveled to Rahat to see the progress in the fight against crime in the Arab sector. Multiple crimes were committed in the area recently, and they were all solved quickly, he said.
“I have seen amazing tools here – intelligence, cameras and mainly determined manpower,” he added.
Netanyahu’s visit was held a day after another in a wave of violent incidents in the Arab sector.
Kalansuwa Municipality Director-General Ashraf Khatib was shot and wounded on Saturday. He was rushed to The Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva for emergency treatment. His condition was listed as serious but stable.
Interior Minister Arye Deri told Kalansuwa Mayor Abdulbast Salameh he would ensure that the perpetrators were apprehended.
“What happened tonight in Kalansuwa has crossed all redlines,” Deri said.
“It is extremely serious that they tried to assassinate a municipality director-general, a senior public servant. The violence in Arab society is outrageous, and tonight exceeded all bounds,” he added.
Meretz Party candidate Issawi Frej said the violence was unacceptable.
“The attempt to assassinate the Kalansuwa Municipality director-general is another escalation by the criminal gangs, which in the absence of proper police enforcement feel there is no limit to the terror they can impose on the Arab sector,” he said. “This is not a time for condemnation from the government and the police. It is time to stop the continued bloodshed.”