Israel approves forming 'national guard' under far-right security minister

Israel authorises setting up a national guard under far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, which human rights groups and critics say will create "a private, armed militia". 

The exact powers of the new national guard will be discussed by a committee comprised of all Israeli security agencies, which will submit recommendations within 90 days, the prime minister's office said in a statement on Sunday.

Palestinian politicians have denounced the national guard as a "militia" for Ben-Gvir. Other opposition figures have accused Ben-Gvir of wanting a new force to crack down on nationwide demonstrations against the government's judicial overhaul plan.

"Why does the State of Israel — which has an army, police, military intelligence, the Shin Bet, Mossad, National Security Council, Prisons Service, riot police, a SWAT team — need another national guard?" Palestinian lawmaker Ayman Odeh wrote on Twitter.

Israel's police chief, Inspector-General Yaacov Shabtai also questioned the need for the national guard and warned that any separation of it from the police hierarchy "could prove most costly and even harm the security of the citizenry," according to the Ynet news site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also said that the committee would propose if the police commissioner "or another body" will be in charge of the guard.

The move was a condition set by Ben-Gvir to agree to freeze the government's controversial judicial reforms, following months of protest and a crippling general strike on Monday.

READ MORE: Ben-Gvir gets ‘national guard’ for consenting to delaying judicial reforms

Deployment to Palestinian communities

The previous government had begun moves to set up an auxiliary police force during Israel's war on besieged Gaza in May 2021. That government fell before the force was finalised.

Ben Gvir has described the planned national guard in media interviews as an update of the previous government's initiative.

Ben-Gvir, a hardline Jewish settler from the occupied West Bank with past convictions for support for terrorism and incitement against Palestinians — who make up 21 percent of Israel's population — rose in politics partly due to the 2021 unrest.

He now wields an expanded law-and-order portfolio in Netanyahu's religious-ultranationalist governing coalition.

Discussing the national guard's planned deployments, Ben-Gvir named only Palestinian communities in Israel as well as along the boundaries with the occupied West Bank.

"It will deal with this exclusively. The police does not deal exclusively with this. It's busy with a thousand and one things," he told Army Radio.

Government funding will enable an initial intake of 1,850 personnel for the new force, Ben-Gvir said. But he said that the national guard would take months to get off the ground and that he was trying to fill police posts in parallel.

READ MORE: Why has Netanyahu’s judicial reform brought Israel to an inflection point?