Taking security into their own hands – Thousands of Israelis acting as police officers

With internal security handed over to self-appointed guards and the government subservient to the most extreme politicians, the expanded gun ownership is not only unable to deal with Hamas, it is killing Israeli civilians!

October 7 destroyed the sense of personal security across the country, and many Israelis have begun organizing their own ad hoc security arrangements in both villages and kibbutzim.

This response includes a significant increase in applications for gun permits, with more than 270,000 Israelis applying between October 7 and December 25. Police officials report a marked increase in civilian rapid response teams, which have jumped from 70 units to 900, incorporating more than 10,000 volunteers.

According to Israeli journalist Etan Nehin, the fear and tension throughout Israel since the massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023, combined with the alarming turn internal security policies have taken, have created an atmosphere of armed paranoia—and led to the spread of armed militias with little training and an aggressive mentality.

As the Israeli reports in Foreign Policy, the weapons that hundreds of thousands of Israelis are buying not only fail to deal with terrorism, but kill Israelis themselves. For example, in the early hours of January 11, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, just across the Green Line from Jerusalem.

It was revealed that one of the suspects had recently obtained his gun permit, thanks to the recently relaxed firearms policy of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

In another incident, on November 30, 2023, a shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem resulted in the death of four Israelis. One of them, 38-year-old lawyer Yuval Doron Castleman, who was at the scene, used his gun but was accidentally shot by reservist Aviad Frija, a member of the far-right settler group Hilltop Youth.

Despite Castleman kneeling, and throwing away his weapon, once the soldiers arrived, Aviad Frija killed him. Frija was initially placed under house arrest, but was released in early January with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying simply: “This is life.”

The Israeli Armed Forces announced that the soldier acted in self-defense.

“The reservists were not used to taking out weapons immediately,” said Eitai Mak, a lawyer familiar with Israel’s arms industry. “It is a result of the chaotic environment combined with right-wing policies. Rapid response units are supposed to be linked to the police. They are supposed to train them. But with so many units and so many weapons, the police cannot supervise them all.”

It didn’t start with the Hamas attack

However, as Ethan Nehin points out, this spike in gun ownership is not simply a spontaneous reaction of an anxious populace, but rather the result of hard-right-backed pro-gun policies that have intensified under Ben Gvir’s influence. past year.

This policy shift toward greater gun accessibility and ownership is a calculated move that aligns with the hard-right agenda, rather than simply a direct response to public interest.

Ben-Gvir has supported increasing private gun ownership, significantly relaxing the country’s traditionally strict gun control laws and easing rules of engagement for police officers. Last August, in fact, Ben Gvir publicly praised an Israeli settler who fatally shot a Palestinian teenager.

“For the hard right, guns are not a pragmatic necessity, but an ideological belief.”

Ben Gvir’s agenda was clear long before October 7, according to the Foreign Policy report. After taking office in late 2022, he ordered police to end the practice of requiring citizens involved in an attack to surrender their weapons for investigation.

“We have to go back to 20 years ago, to the Second Intifada,” Eitai Mak said. “In response to the Intifada, Israel saw a proliferation of security guards in public places, from coffee shops to shopping malls to train stations, with tens of thousands of them armed. In the late 2010s, when the then Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan introduced a law reducing the solar limit for gun ownership. Then, in the last election in November 2022, Ben Gvir has loosened these laws even more,” Mack reports.

Privatization of law enforcement

For Ben Gvir and his like-minded people, October 7 was an opportunity. The new regulations initiated by Ben Gvir have significantly lowered the criteria for obtaining firearms. Licensing regulations have been relaxed and interviews are no longer required. Kibbutz members can now obtain gun licenses through their agricultural associations.

“Ben-Gvir has deliberately weakened the police to create a ‘national guard.’ The privatization of law enforcement leaves citizens with no choice but to protect themselves,” Mack said.

Crime has also increased. In early 2024, a woman was sexually assaulted at gunpoint, allegedly by a man who had acquired his gun after Ben-Gvir’s regulations were relaxed. Within 2023 in Israel 244 Arabs were murdered by such incidents with weapons, massacre.

At the same time, however, gun ownership is not enjoyed by those who are… disagreeing with government policies. The licenses of several members of the anti-Netanyahu group Brothers in Arms were revoked for “obvious reasons”, with members saying they were targeted for their anti-government stance.

Under Ben Gvir’s order the police can use live fire against those blocking roads, blocking the movement of army personnel and access to settlements.

Small armies of far-right Israelis

As the Israeli lawyer thus argues, for the hard right, guns are not a pragmatic necessity, but an ideological belief.”

With so many guns and citizen groups organizing, there is concern that some of those weapons are falling into the hands of fringe right-wing elements: Rafi Kendosim, a jailed Likud party member who is alleged to be the head of a crime family, runs a biker unit rapid reaction.

Moshe Ben Zikri, affiliated with the Jewish Power party and known for his right-wing activism, also heads a rapid reaction group. Ben Zikri, who has been arrested for anti-LGBTQ protests, runs a unit that Harish’s mayor says has become out of control and refuses to cooperate with municipal authorities.

Another group, the Barel Unit, was founded by Jewish Power MK Almog Cohen to restore “security in the Negev.”

For Arabs in Israel, these arms purchases were truly terrifying because they were initiated either by Netanyahu himself, who had claimed in 2015 that “masses of Arabs” were going to the polls to oust him, or by the convicted Ben-Gvir in the past for racist incitement.