THE VIOLENCE BETWEEN NATURE AND LAW: THE PHENOMENON OF VIOLENCE IN THE ARAB SOCIETY IN ISRAEL AS A BY-PRODUCT OF THE NATURE, SOCIAL, AND LEGAL CONTEXT

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of violence in Arab society in Israel within an integrative analytical framework that seeks to move beyond the dominant one-dimensional explanations in the social sciences and criminology. The study is premised on the assumption that violence cannot be fully understood through a single explanatory variable-biological, social, or legal-but rather as the product of a dynamic and ongoing interaction between human nature, social structure, and the legal system. Drawing on recent multi-layered approaches to the study of crime and violence (Arias, 2017; Lessing, 2021), the article proposes a conceptual framework that highlights the frictions and interactions among these three dimensions. The study is based on a qualitative methodology comprising 32 in-depth interviews with judges, police officers, academics, community leaders, and other professionals. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, enabling the identification of recurring patterns alongside competing systems of meaning. The findings indicate that violence is perceived as the outcome of a combination of social exclusion, structural inequality, erosion of trust in state institutions, and the weakening of traditional community control mechanisms. At the same time, informal institutions such as sulha continue to play a central role in conflict resolution, thereby creating a hybrid governance space. At the institutional level, the findings point to a crisis of legitimacy in law enforcement systems, manifested in perceptions of inequality and low trust in the law, a phenomenon consistent with contemporary literature on governance and legal legitimacy (Tyler, 2006; OECD, 2023). Structurally, violence is described as a continuous process of escalation and institutionalization rather than isolated incidents, in line with models of “violence economies” and criminal organizations as alternative governance mechanisms (World Bank, 2022; UNODC, 2022). The article’s main theoretical contribution is the development of the “friction model,” which conceptualizes violence as the product of continuous interaction among nature, society, and law, rather than as the result of a single causal factor. This model challenges both one-dimensional biological approaches (Wrangham, 2019) and classical structural sociological perspectives (Wacquant, 2009), offering an integrated understanding of violence as a multi-layered systemic phenomenon. The article concludes that violence in Arab society in Israel cannot be reduced to a single explanatory framework. Rather, it reflects a complex encounter between state failure, deep social processes, and fundamental human dynamics. Within this space, law, society, and nature do not operate separately; instead, they collide, intertwine, and jointly shape contemporary patterns of violence.