It was another run-of-the-mill morning for Saher Ismail, adviser to Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton. On Aug. 15, Ismail left his home in Kafr Rameh in the Galilee, said goodbye to his wife and six-year-old son, and got into his car to go to work. A few minutes later, he was mowed down by a hail of bullets.

Ismail, 50, was a familiar figure in the national political scene. His death left many unanswered questions, but most of all, it left people stunned. Who could have wanted to see a person like that dead? There was nothing unusual or suspicious about him. For years, he was a prominent Likud activist in the Arab society, and a close friend of Justice Minister Gideon Saar. Had he been threatened by criminals because of his ties to people in power. Were they trying to extort him? Only one thing was certain. His murder was planned well in advance.

The police launched an investigation, but so far, they have come up empty-handed. The way it looks now, it is highly likely that it will go unsolved, too, just like dozens of murder cases in the Arab society in the last year alone.

The statistics are chilling. Ismail was the 74th victim of a series of murders in Arab towns or villages since the start of this year. Some targeted innocent victims, random passersby and even young children. This is what’s happening in Israel’s backyard, after years of neglect and inadequate budgets for infrastructures and education. While budgetary allocations to Arab localities have been more generous over the last few years, it is still just a drop in a bucket. The crime rate has grown, and the number of illegal guns in criminal hands has grown along with it.