National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir promised his “full backing” to police officers who fatally shoot civilians in apparent acts of self-defense, during a Sunday police ceremony in Beit Shemesh.
Held at the city’s National Police Academy ahead of Independence Day, the annual ceremony attended by Ben Gvir and Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy saw senior officers awarded new ranks and appointments.
The far-right minister hailed the so-called “shift in course” that occurred in law enforcement since he first took office, rattling off a litany of new changes he introduced to the police.
The minister also called for Israel to begin imposing the death penalty, asserting that “for terrorists there is no redemption, there is no remedy or rehabilitation.”
“If I were able to convince the prime minister, there would be the death penalty and there would also be the electric chair. With God’s help, we will get there,” he said.
Ben Gvir also took credit for leading a “historic reform” that broadened civilian eligibility to bear arms, pointing to a sharp rise in gun permits granted on his watch.
Before taking the helm, he said, the average number of gun permits issued per year stood at 8,000, but has since risen to a staggering 200,000 permits issued each year on his watch.
The gun licensing boom under Ben Gvir has prompted fears of a growing deadly threat to victims of domestic abuse.
That fear became reality earlier this month in Jerusalem, when Esther Dadashi Cohen, a 35-year-old mother of four, was shot dead by her husband, who then proceeded to shoot himself.
Hebrew outlets reported at the time that he had held a permit for the gun since July 2023.
Dadashi’s younger brother Moshe railed against the current firearms regulations in a letter to the Michal Sela Forum, an NGO combating domestic violence.
“The existing licensing laws are illogical — and they endanger us,” he said, adding that he would dedicate his life to “changing the gun regulations in this country… so not every psychopath will be able to own a personal firearm.”
On top of his efforts to loosen the criteria for acquiring a firearm license, Ben Gvir also touted several laws allowing police broad discretion when pursuing criminals.
“We’ve given you vast tools of administrative restrictions,” he told his audience, referring to a recently passed law allowing police to drastically curb suspects’ freedom of movement and expression on the basis of secret evidence.
He lauded another 2023 law allowing police to “search homes without a warrant,” which was jointly spearheaded by his Otzma Yehudit party and Yisrael Beytenu, in the opposition.
Israel Police chief Levy also addressed the event, announcing that next month the police plan to launch a “long-term strategic plan” to combat crime in Arab society.
“We are conducting a determined and consistent fight against crime, with an emphasis on crime in Arab society. We will destroy this monster… it is our commitment to the Arab sector,” Levy said.
There have been at least 76 homicides in the Arab community since the start of 2025 — a similar pace to 2024 and 2023, according to the Abraham initiatives.
The coexistence group has recorded the unprecedented rise in violent crime in the Arab community in the first two years in office of Ben Gvir, whose portfolio includes the police.