The city of Ariel. Photo: Ori/Wikimedia Commons.

A new poll conducted by Israel’s Ministry of Public Security in order to determine the effectiveness of urban policing programs in 13 different Israeli cities, found that residents in Ariel feel the safest.

Located in Judea and Samaria, Ariel is home to 20,000 residents, 92 percent of whom responded saying that they feel secure in their community.

Following Ariel were two cities located in central Israel: Givatayim, a city outside of Tel Aviv, and the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak, where 88 percent of residents said they felt safe. The northern city of Carmiel ranked fourth in that category.

The cities with the lowest sense of security were the mixed Jewish-Arab cities of Lod and Nazareth, with only 70 percent saying  they felt protected.

The poll also found that Ariel residents (85%) are the least concerned with being harmed by criminal activity out of the 13 cities documented, followed by Givatayim (84%) and Bnei Brak (81%). The cities where residents felt that they were most likely to be victims of crime were Lod and Nazareth.

“There is no internal crime or violence in Ariel,” said Avi Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Ariel Development Fund to Tazpit News Agency. “Graffiti is as criminal as it gets here.”

Zimmerman said that his city’s residents feel both secure and rooted in the community. “Normalcy is taken for granted,” he added.

Established in 1978 by 40 families, Ariel today has 29 kindergartens, seven schools, and a university that educates more than 10,000 students a year.

“We are proud that Ariel is ranked first when it comes to our residents’ personal security,” said the city’s mayor, Eliyahu Shaviro. “It is a result of the hard work of city police authorities and that of the Israeli police force. We will continue to ensure that security of Ariel’s residents remains at the center of our attention in the future.”