When the threats to the lives of Israeli citizens are from Gaza, Jenin or Lebanon, over the years Israel has succeeded in providing a sufficient defensive response from the air and on land, pursuing terrorists to death and creating a balance of deterrence (which, of course, requires ongoing maintenance).
For a security power that survives, some would say thrives, in a hostile environment such as the Middle East, the domestic challenges are much more difficult. The Guardian of the Walls events were a resounding wake-up call, and then the "governance" movement was born, synonymous with the call to restore Israel's weak internal security.
Efforts to increase the number of police officers in Israel, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Protection has been put into law, now it is possible to go on the offensive
Raising the issue to the top of the national awareness agenda led for the first time to massive coverage of the protection incidents suffered by residents of the periphery in the Negev and the north. Ra'am's entry into the previous government raised awareness of the daily suffering caused to Arab society by crime in the sector, which results in many dozens of fatalities each year. Restoring the personal security of Israeli citizens has become a burning issue to address, no less than the challenges of the cost of living or high-tech. As evidence, Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party thrived in the elections even in clearly "left-wing" areas among farmers in the north and south, expecting him to succeed where they failed before him.
More police forces on the ground, photo: Dudu Greenspan
Although there is still much work to be done, since its establishment, the government and the coalition have been working in three ways: one – strengthening the police with standards and budgets in order to create an increased presence on the ground, the second – legislation supporting enforcement, and the third – promoting decisions to restore order in the Negev by the Ministerial Committee for Regulating Settlement in the Bedouin Diaspora.
But this week the Knesset approved the Protection Law, a bill that has been promoted for years by civil society organizations such as Regavim, Hashomer Hadasha and the business sector presidency, which represent many business owners affected by the phenomenon. In this Knesset, the law was passed by Yitzhak Kreuzer and Almog Cohen of Otzma Yehudit, with broad support from the coalition and the opposition. A rare sight these days.
The law defines the offense of protection in Israeli law for the first time, and it establishes a minimum prison sentence for those collecting protection money, and also allows forfeiture of money obtained through extortion and protection money even without a criminal conviction. According to the bill, a minimum mandatory prison sentence will be defined and the possibility of imprisonment for many years for a protection offense. If until now only a direct threat of extortion was considered a threat, after the passage of the law, receiving money for a service inappropriate to the consideration is sufficient to convict him of the offense of protection. This is a significant achievement for the coalition and a legislative tool that holds high hopes, along with expanding enforcement and policing – in order to roll back the protection offenders who terrorize farmers and business owners.
This will be done to a business that has not paid protection fees in the north, Photo: Eyal Margolin - Genie
Governance in the Negev: Expanding Enforcement and Eliminating Polygamy
Videos of reckless driving, damage to lampposts and blocking roads during the days of the Guardian of the Walls, as well as the phenomenon of illegal construction - all these have become an inseparable part of the daily routine of the residents of the Negev, which has become a kind of backyard of the State of Israel.
For years, various Israeli governments have turned a blind eye to the Negev or tried unsuccessfully to regulate the growing diaspora. The current government seeks to succeed where they failed before it.
Minister Amichai Shikli, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Alongside the legislation in the Knesset, the Ministerial Committee on Bedouin Society is promoting a series of government decisions aimed at restoring governance in the Negev – from regulating the Bedouin diaspora that controls large areas of the Negev without law, through expanding tools for combating polygamy, to expanding enforcement in the Negev.
Minister Amichai Shikli, who is responsible for Bedouin society in the Negev, brought to the last two meetings a series of significant decisions that were extensively covered in this newspaper – from allocating funds for advocacy against polygamy, through the decision approved this week to halt the division of land by mother house as part of efforts to regulate Bedouin settlement and transition to division by household, the allocation of 14 new police standards to combat the phenomenon, and the establishment of a team at the National Insurance Institute to examine the issue of allowances in order to make recommendations for denying the motif that "encourages" polygamy in government allowances.
Suspected protection: Five trucks burned in Ramle // Israel Fire and Rescue Service Spokesperson
In addition, Shikli launched a new plan to regulate settlement in the Negev, which is supposed to lead Rahat and Hura to economic independence, and to convene the diaspora in Bir Hadaj and the Hebron Hills diaspora into defined areas.
Also in the plan is expanding enforcement in order to subdue criminal elements that prevent the Bedouin from entering the communities. In fact, today police officers from the Yoav unit, which was established to deal with crime in the Negev, are loaned to various missions in the central region, mainly for demonstrations, due to the lack of a police force.
The withdrawal of forces from the Negev to other areas inevitably leads to the abandonment of the area and its important tasks in favor of other needs of the system.
Minister Ben-Gvir's circle understands that without a supportive policing system, the government will find it difficult to complete its tasks in the region, and therefore they are constantly engaged in placing new police officers within the system.
More standards for police officers and more pay for those who serve
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's efforts to rehabilitate the police were successful at the budget stage, but efforts are now being made to recruit hundreds of police officers to missing positions by raising police salaries (which had already risen by NIS 1,000 earlier this month in some ranks). Improving conditions and wages, say those close to the minister, should fill the ranks of the police with additional manpower. When there are enough police officers for missions, it will also be possible to feel the growing personal security in the Negev, the Galilee, the Arab sector and even in the center of the country.
The National Guard was also launched as part of a government decision last April. The committee to discuss the establishment of the Guard has already met more than five times to define the body's goals and is expected to submit its recommendations in the coming month. While Ben-Gvir is pushing for the establishment of the Guard as soon as possible, the work required to be done earlier is also passed through legislation if the new unit is not subordinated to the police, as well as the recruitment of police officers, who, as stated, are already lacking in the existing units.
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