Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Sderot police station with Hadar National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Police Commissioner RNZ Kobi Shabtai, Southern District Commander Lt. Gen. Amir Cohen, Station Commander Superintendent Dvir Arovas and Prime Minister's Office Director General Yossi Shelly, July 29, 2023/Kobi Gideon, Itay Beit On / GPO, Sound: Ben Peretz / GPO
The Ben-Eliyahu Committee, which dealt with the missions and structure of the National Guard, reached the final stretch with a thick report prepared over the past three months and submitted in recent days to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. After dozens of hours of discussions with representatives of security and government agencies, the committee recommends subordinating the new National Guard body to the police commissioner.
At the beginning of the report, committee chairman Shlomo Ben-Eliyahu, until recently director general of the Ministry of National Security, writes that "the committee recommends the establishment of a National Guard to respond to an emergency reference scenario of multi-front riots on nationalist grounds, which will take place by way of a war lasting several weeks, during which many arenas of destruction are expected due to the firing of tens of thousands of missiles."
"The quality and skill of the force structure proposed for the National Guard will provide a response even during routine times to terrorist incidents, and a response to the personal security and sense of security of Israeli citizens." Ben-Eliyahu emphasizes: "As of the writing of the report, the police do not have the manpower, means and skills to respond to the reference scenario described in the report."
Riots in Jaffa during Operation Guardian of the Walls / Reuven Castro
Ben-Eliyahu added: "The committee's work ended in September 2023, and in the last days of preparing the report, the Iron Swords War began, at the beginning of which some 1,400 people were barbarically and indiscriminately murdered and hundreds were kidnapped. So the committee did not discuss or address the significance of the events of the war, and the strategic changes resulting from it."
Regarding the timing of the report's submission, Ben-Eliyahu writes: "I chose to submit its conclusions now, out of concern that with the passage of time until the implications of the war are understood, the implementation of the committee's conclusions will be postponed by many months, while the need for a National Guard does not allow this wait. It is important to note that the force buildup of the Israel Police is also not adapted to dealing with a terrorist incident on the scale that took place on Simchat Torah."
Ben-Eliyahu adds: "We saw the exceptional performance of the Border Police's national tactical unit during the first day of the war, and its contribution to halting the offensive – a unit numbering only a few hundred fighters. It is clear to all of us that if the National Guard had existed on the morning of Simchat Torah, numbering over 7,000 fighters, in tactical brigades deployed throughout the country, and alert squads had been established in every town and city, as recommended by the committee, the results of the murderous attack could have looked different."
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It added: "Most of the committee members believed that action should be taken to expand the mandatory order to be transferred from the IDF to the National Guard, so that the mix of combatants in the National Guard will be 60 percent permanent combatants and 40 percent compulsory combatants. Due to opposition from the Defense Ministry and the IDF, the committee chose to forward its recommendation to the political echelon, in order for it to decide on this issue. Of course, in light of the war, this dilemma becomes even more acute in light of the needs of the army and the National Guard, and I believe that the government will have to decide on this weighty issue."
With the consent of a majority of the committee members, the National Guard will be subordinate to the Police Commissioner and the Israel Police, and will not be subordinate to the minister in charge. But at the same time, the Guard will act as a body "with a concrete national mission, which is not swallowed up by the designations of the Israel Police. In addition, the requirement that the body be state in terms of its activities and values was emphasized. Since the National Guard is essentially a 'fighting force' rather than a regular police force, it was emphasized in the designation that it was an operational body. Due to its many capabilities, both operational and policing, the force was defined, similar to the definition of the Border Police today, as a multi-purpose force."
Details of the five-year plan for the establishment of the National Guard/official website, uncredited
Functions of the National Guard
The main role of the National Guard in routine times will be as an operational body for fighting terrorism in the domestic arena, and for carrying out routine security activities. Among other things, it is intended to take part in delimited tasks of the police districts, to deal with crime due to lack of governance, including serious crime in Arab society, serious crime that harms national security,
and dealing with complex disturbances of the peace. The National Guard is also designated to bear mission responsibility for strengthening personal security in rural areas, with an emphasis on agricultural crime. He will be required to initiate operational activity, especially demonstrating presence in the public sphere, to strengthen personal security. In
times of
emergency, the National Guard will act as an operational arm of the police, to protect the internal front from terrorist incidents and nationalist disturbances. It is designed to command complex arenas and, of course, to assist security forces and rescue agencies in civil emergencies.
With regard to regular missions of the Guard, it is proposed to anchor in police orders that the operation of the National Guard in the provinces be carried out in accordance with a list of police missions that relate to crime due to lack of governance and serious crime that harms national security. The list will be approved from time to time by the Minister
of National Security, on the recommendation of the Inspector General. This list will be dynamic, and will allow relative flexibility in the operation of the National Guard, as needed. That the missions match the relative advantages of the National Guard.
Regarding occasional activity, apart from the types of offenses and police actions detailed above, it is proposed to establish in police orders a procedure for authorizing activity in the National Guard forces. The procedure will allow the Commissioner of Police, after receiving the recommendation of the relevant district and the commander of the National Guard, to authorize in writing to activate the National Guard even for a mission limited in time, place and order, even if it deviates from the prescribed missions. In light of the sensitivity of this issue, it is proposed that the procedure be approved by the Minister of National Security.
Reporting and Control – Establish mechanisms for monitoring and supervising the operation of the National Guard in the provinces, including the obligation of the Inspector General to report, once a year, to the National Security Committee on the manner in which the Guard is operated.
Proposed General Structure of the National Guard/official website, uncredited
National Guard structure
The committee proposes that the Guard be divided into sectors throughout the country, in which each force is familiar with the territorial characteristics of that area cell, which will enable a quick response to any disturbance that develops. This is based on the understanding that the way to prevent the expansion of a disturbance is to bounce a skilled and large force at the very beginning of the occurrence, using, as necessary, less lethal but effective means of dispersing a disturbance.
The report stated: "In light of the National Guard's role in emergencies and routines, the committee found it appropriate to recommend that the National Guard be built in a paramilitary, terrain-based layout. In other words, the National Guard forces will be divided into territorial areas, and that the internal division of personnel in the National Guard will be in a format similar to the military division – that is, in the form of brigades, battalions and companies, and not in the basic police structure of a police station."
In total, the committee proposes the recruitment of about 17,500 regular police officers to establish 12 brigades, including six regional brigades, five mobile tactical brigades and a national mobile tactical brigade. The state will be divided into six arenas - the Jerusalem arena, the southern arena, the northern arena, the coastal arena, the center arena and the Tel Aviv arena. In addition, more than 2,000 fighters will be recruited to man the reserve companies, some of them on an order day under the IDF, as is done regularly in the West Bank.
Proposed structure of the National Guard Theater Force/official website, uncredited
Open-Fire Regulations
The report stated, "The committee calls for a reexamination of the recommendations of the Or Commission, which deal with the possibility of opening live fire in the face of a serious risk during an emergency, which is assessed to create a danger to life that is not immediate. For example, in a situation of violent attempts to break into the community, in a situation in which it is estimated that the infiltration of the mob into the community will lead to a real danger to the lives of its residents, or a situation of blocking roads, it is estimated that the continued prevention of movement is expected to lead to damage to the continuity of the IDF's functioning, thereby harming state security and the lives of IDF fighters."
The committee clarifies that "in light of the sensitivity that exists on the subject (at the time of writing this report, demonstrations were taking place throughout Israel against the background of the legal reform), it should be clarified that the committee does not call for a reexamination of the scales of the use of force in public disturbances, and of the manner in which the police operate vis-à-vis roadblocks or routine disturbances of the peace, but only in emergency situations, in the reference scenario detailed above. Concretely, it should be clarified and emphasized that this does not express any position on the roadblocks and disturbances of public order that have taken place over the past few months."
It was also proposed that the forces be provided with dedicated weapons, including less lethal means of dispersing public disturbances, but regular weapons, as are available to blue police officers and the Border Police.
- More on the subject:
- Israel Police
- Border Police
- terrorism
- Governance
- Itamar Ben-Gvir