Critics warn the far-right security minister could use the 2,000-strong force specifically against anti-government demonstrators and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The Israeli cabinet has authorised plans for a controversial “national guard” sought by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to deal with unrest in Palestinian communities in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that the cabinet approved the establishment of the force, but that a committee comprised of Israel’s existing security agencies would determine the guard’s authorities and whether it would be subordinate to the police or take orders directly from Ben-Gvir, as he demands.
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The committee has 90 days to make its recommendations.
A statement from Ben-Gvir’s office said the guard, which would operate under his ministry, would deal with “emergency scenarios, nationalistic crime, terror, and strengthening sovereignty”.
The move was a condition set by Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, to agree to freeze the government’s controversial judicial reforms following months of protest and a crippling general strike on Monday.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the government’s decision on Sunday an “extremist fantasy of delusional people” and slammed a separate decision to cut budgets from other ministries “to fund Ben-Gvir’s private militia”.
“The priorities of the government are ridiculous and despicable. The only thing that keeps it busy is running over democracy and promoting extreme fantasies of delusional people,” Lapid said on Twitter.
Under Ben-Gvir’s plan, the unit is to work alongside the police and military and deal with “civil unrest”, such as the “disturbances” or pro-Palestinian protests that occurred in mixed Jewish-Arab areas during the Gaza war of May 2021.
“It will deal with this exclusively. The police does not deal exclusively with this. It’s busy with a thousand and one things,” Ben-Gvir told Army Radio.
Critics warn that Ben-Gvir – a hardline Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank with past convictions for support for terrorism and incitement against Palestinians – could use the force of around 2,000 troops specifically against anti-government demonstrators or the Palestinian and Arab population.
“I think we need to strengthen the existing police force,” Tzur said.
“We cannot accept that there will be any kind of law enforcement which is not under … the police commissioner. It is very strange that the government would decide to create another police [unit], and the sense that it would be a private militia or it would be parallel to the existing forces … it would be a disaster.”