“As Israel moves closer to become a dictatorship, Ben Gvir, the Minister of National Security demands grow louder to have his own nationalist militia guard,” said the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
ACRI contacted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to point out that this dangerous intention should be stopped immediately: “The national guard he dreams of creating is called ‘Return of the Governance’ and he does not even try to hide its true purpose. His aim is to create a nationalist guard that will serve his racist agenda directly, targeting pro-democracy protesters and Arab citizens alike.”
“Upon formation of the national guard, two policing systems will be established: a ‘regular blue police’ and a national guard with military markings. There is no doubt that this will lead to discriminatory steps against the Arab population, and violence will escalate. Arab citizens will lose even their last trust in police.”
On last March 29, thousands of left-wing activists rallied inTel Aviv and other cities against the proposed establishment of a new National Guard that would answer to racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Similar rallies were also held in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, Rehovot and Holon.
Addressing the protest, the head of the Hadash-Ta’al parliamentary faction likened the National Guard to “the brown shirts” of the Nazi paramilitary, “or the yellow shirts,” MK Ayman Odeh said in reference to the color included in the logo of several Israeli nationalist groups, including the Jewish supremacist Kach movement that Ben Gvir was active in as a teen. Kach was founded by the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who Ben Gvir and other members of his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party have described themselves as disciples of. “We won’t allow you to form fascist militias in the service of Kahanism,” Odeh said at the protest.
Among the participants of the rally in Tel-Aviv. MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta’al), is particularly worried about Ben-Gvir’s national guard. “The ‘National Guard’ is a sugar-coated term for Kahanist militia, an updated Stormtroopers intended to target Arab citizens, leftists and all kinds of dissidents.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=30928
