‘Go home’: Ben Gvir feuds with residents of southern Bedouin town after deadly shooting

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir verbally clashed Wednesday with residents of Tel Sheva while visiting the community hours after a deadly shooting.

The far-right minister, accused by some of having allowed a violent crime wave in the Arab community to go unchecked, has been visiting southern Bedouin towns in recent days, after announcing a new operation to fight violent crime in the Negev.

The visits have aggravated residents, who view the operation and Ben Gvir’s provocative tours in the area as a bid to win over voters in southern Jewish locales ahead of the next election.

In one confrontation captured on camera, local resident Jawad Abu Assa quarreled through the rolled-down window of his car with the combative minister, who can be heard at the start of the clip telling him: “You all don’t like to see police, you aren’t used to houses being destroyed, you’re not used to getting tickets.”

“Let me tell you something,” Abu Assa responded. “Who did you lose in the war? Me, my brother died in the war. Who did you lose? You just say fiery things.” Hamas terrorists murdered Osama Abu Assa, Jawad’s brother, on October 7, 2023.

Ben Gvir responded, “1,500 of my brothers died in the war.”

עימות בין בן גביר לתושב תל שבע: התושב; "אח שלי מת במלחמה" בן גביר: "1,500 אחים מתו לי" זה קורה אחרי רצח בעיר ובתגובה לכך בן גביר הגיע יחד עם עשרות שוטרים למבצע אכיפה נרחב בעיר. pic.twitter.com/UJXg07rbE7

— ידידיה אפשטיין (@yedidya_epstien) November 26, 2025

“Bedouins, we also serve in the army, we help you, we’ve helped everyone,” Abu Assa said.

“Whoever serves, I’m with him,” Ben Gvir said. “But whoever needs to be taken down, I’ll take him down.”

“Enough,” Abu Assa said. “You’re a media guy, you love noise for its own sake; get out of here, don’t make things worse, go do something else.”

“Have you demolished 5,000 houses? We’ve demolished 5,000 houses,” Ben Gvir said, referring to enforcement efforts, which some view as discriminatory, that have ramped up under his tenure.

Tel Sheva on strike after murder linked to blood feud

The exchange came hours after Bilal Atwa al-Asim, 40, was shot and killed outside a gas station in the town, prompting the Tel Sheva local council to declare a strike.

Police have arrested three suspects in the shooting, which took place following a fight between children from rival families currently embroiled in a blood feud.

All government services are currently shut down, save for schools, said Rafet Srihan, a member of the town’s local council.

After the confrontation, Abu Assa told the Ynet news site: “Yesterday there were a lot of police here, and this morning there was a murder in Tel Sheva. He just demolished houses and shacks, and just inflamed the whole mess.”

“He’s proud of it, that he’s demolished more than 50,000 Bedouin houses, but he’s only agitating,” the resident said, seeming to inflate the figure cited by Ben Gvir tenfold while accusing him of pandering to Jewish voters in the south ahead of the next elections.

‘We’re all citizens of Israel’

Abu Assa said the minister “should resign, go home,” adding: “Bedouins serve in the army, we’re doctors, and we live in peace with the [Jewish] residents of the area.”

He said of the confrontation, which took place near the cemetery in Tel Sheva: “I visited the grave of my brother, and they stopped me with their weapons drawn. I told him we’re all citizens of Israel, we also want equality.”

“The Bedouins build shacks, many of them don’t have homes, 15 families live on top of one another. If they built housing for us, there wouldn’t be illegal construction here. I call on Ben Gvir to apologize; 95% of Bedouins are normal, upright people,” he continued.

For decades, Israel has been trying to convince scattered, off-the-grid Bedouin villagers that it is in their interest to move into government-designated Bedouin townships, where the government can provide them with water, electricity and schools.

There has been a sharp uptick in demolitions under the current government, and Ben Gvir — who has bragged about the rise in demolitions under his watch — has been reported to have overstepped his authority on the issue. Many Bedouin allege that Israel is seeking to clear the land to develop new towns for Jewish communities.

Meanwhile, the number of murders annually in the Arab community has more than doubled since Ben Gvir took over the police in 2023, though rates were already on the rise for years before.