Ben-Gvir's National Guard to focus on Arab-Israeli crime, mixed cities

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s prized new national guard force, if it happens, will focus on fighting criminal organizations, especially in the Israeli-Arab sector, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

He added that the new force – which he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to in the coalition agreements, and then signed again on Monday night – will be approved by the cabinet next Sunday.

“Most countries [have it], and it will be similar here,” Ben-Gvir said. “There are two models. The first, where it’s part of the police and under police control, and the second, where it’s a separate part of the national security ministry,” similar to the Israel Prisons Service and other security-related units.

He insisted that it is “good news for Israel. The last government had tried to build this force but did not succeed. They did pass an initial budget of NIS 1.4 billion for around 1,800 employees,” but the initial approvals were never translated into reality in the field.

Further, he said that the force will focus on combating “extortion in areas with criminal organizations and ‘mixed’ cities,” a clear implication of focusing on Israeli-Arab crime.

Along the same lines, he referred to handling situations like what came up during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021, when extremist elements of the Israeli-Arab sector in some mixed cities rioted against local Jewish-Israelis.

At the same time, the national guard would also combat extortion and other illegal activities of Jewish crime organizations.

The spokesman admitted that no decision has yet been made as to whether the new force will be under the police or will be separate.

Policing police policy

Pressed that to date Ben-Gvir has been very frustrated with his inability to influence police policy in a number of areas, the spokesman acknowledged the dilemma and reiterated that the national security minister may push for the option of a national guard completely separate from the police.

National guard members would be issued guns and be considered combat police.

Although the spokesman did not anticipate jurisdictional fights with the IDF since the guard would have no role in the West Bank, he did acknowledge that there could be sticky jurisdictional issues to divide up with the police.

Police Chief Kobi Shabtai had not commented on the force by press time, or regarding what would happen to the one that currently exists, which has mostly served as a flexible body that could reinforce large-scale projects under police auspices.

The existing national guard has recently been involved in crowd control at protests, something that could concern large sectors of the population if it were to be under the purview of Ben-Gvir, who has called for treating left-wing protesters more firmly.

Off the record, police officials have issued a mix of attacks on the new national guard initiative as potentially being used as a private militia or mafia by Ben-Gvir – or saying that so long as the group does not get in the way of the police, it will not be an issue.

The IDF had not responded by press time about the new force.

It is likely that the creation of the new national guard would be legally challenged as unconstitutional before the High Court of Justice.

How the court would rule would probably be tied to actual claims of the force breaking laws or procedures as opposed to the declaration of any principled ruling against its creation.

If the new force discriminates against Israeli-Arabs, let alone causes some kind of broader increase in tensions with the Israeli-Arab sector, it could face greater legal scrutiny.

Another realistic possibility is that Netanyahu will only allow Ben-Gvir partial control of the force and will still give Shabtai an oversight role to keep the national security minister in line.

Yet another possibility is that the new national guard will never come about at all and that Netanyahu used the idea to buy time and keep Ben-Gvir within the coalition while he tries to cut a deal to replace his Otzma Yehudit Party with the much more moderate National Unity Party of former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz.