Israeli police officers. Photo: wiki commons.

Chief of Israel Police Roni Alsheikh announced on Tuesday plans to add some 1,300 officers to the predominantly Arab sector in Israel, the Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported.

Testifying before the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee, Alsheikh said crime in the Arab-Israeli sector was disproportionately high to its share of the Israeli population as a whole, with 59 percent of all convicted murderers hailing from that sector, despite its making up just 21% of the country’s overall population.

Fifty-one percent of attempted murder and 58% of incitement cases also came from the Arab-Israeli sector, he said, according to the Hebrew news site Walla.

Alsheikh asked the committee to establish 10 new police stations in various Arab villages, and to reinforce 10 existing stations outside Arab villages, Israel Hayom reported. The total plan would take about five years to implement, he said.

The police commissioner also discussed measures to stop the common and sometimes deadly practice of setting off fireworks, and firing weapons at weddings and other celebrations — such as security deposits paid to banquet halls, returned to customers on condition they do not allow such activities to take place.