“Baladna head Nidaa Nassar explains how the Haifa-based NGO is raising a generation of Palestinians to overcome their fragmentation and erasure…“VS: Can you say more about Baladna’s work regarding gun crime and violence in Arab communities? NN: “In a study that Baladna conducted in 2022, pressing matters like crime and violence — in which youth are disproportionately involved as both perpetrators and victims — show that we as a society have lost our inviolability as human beings. It is obvious to us that Israel is the system that is directly responsible and activates crime and violence [in our community], but we also need to understand it on a societal level. On the one hand, what is happening inside our society that drives youth to crime and violence? On the other hand, how do we take societal responsibility without ignoring the occupation’s role? Baladna presented practical proposals to limit the spread of violence in the form of projects for young people, in cooperation with authorities such as municipalities, schools, and civil associations, in an attempt to block the path that might lead youth to violence and crime.