It does happen a lot here in Israel (unfortunately)... It is an arab cultural thing that goes back hundreds, possibly even thousands of years...Generally it is not practiced in the larger, more educated metropolitan areas, being much more common in smaller arab villages. It is generally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law... As it should be!! In my opinion, this is the same mentality that leads them to blow up our busses and shoot rockets at us. This primitive mindset (that is passed down in the Arab "education system") is the dominating force in the Muslim world andis one of the primary forces actively impeding any possible progress towards Peace. After all, why stop killing the infidels, their enemies, when their culture says that even murdering their own is acceptable (and in many cases honourable)?
On the other hand, our murder rate is among the lowest in the civilized world. Violent crime is rare enough that every incident is front page news across all our newspapers... When I lived in Atlanta, for comparison, violence and crime are common enough that most incidents went unreported, and, often, uninvestigated... I'll take my Israel any day :-)