In late-night session, Knesset hands Ben Gvir authority over building violations
Giving the far-right minister such power means ‘more demolitions, more murders, more lawlessness in Arab society,’ asserts Ra’am MK Waleed Alhawashla
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
During a late-night marathon plenum session on Wednesday, lawmakers voted 55-51 to ratify a government decision giving far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir authority over a unit that enforces building regulations, a move that critics believe targets Arab citizens.
The decision to transfer the Finance Ministry’s Real Estate Enforcement Division to the National Security Ministry was announced during a cabinet meeting in early April — a transfer of authority that requires Knesset approval — but this ratification was previously delayed due to opposition by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers angered by Ben Gvir’s initial refusal to support Haredi-pushed legislation cementing the ultra-Orthodox establishment’s control over so-called kosher phones.
That Shas-backed bill finally passed its second and third readings last night, immediately prior to the vote on the expansion of Ben Gvir’s authority.
The Knesset’s approval of both the kosher phone bill and the transfer of powers to Ben Gvir may indicate a de-escalation of long-running tensions between the two parties, which flared up in recent days and still isn’t over.
“We have already increased enforcement in real estate, but the transfer of the authority to my office will allow us to act even more decisively and in a joint effort against the illegal construction in the Negev and the north,” Ben Gvir declared in a statement on Thursday morning.
“This is how governance is done!” he boasted, despite many forms of crime spiking during his term.
The move was part of the coalition agreement signed between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party when the government took power in late 2022.
Rights groups have protested the wording of the agreement, which singles out “criminality” in Israel’s Arab society.
Over the week leading up to Wednesday night’s vote, Arab lawmakers warned against the transfer of authority, with Ra’am MK Waleed Alhawashla arguing that “the one who actually runs the country is Ben Gvir.”
Giving the ultranationalist minister such power means “more demolitions, more murders, more lawlessness in Arab society,” he asserted.
“He tweets about demolishing houses, in Zarzir, in the Negev, now in Lod,” complained MK Ahmad Tibi of the Hadash-Ta’al party, during a speech in the Knesset plenum during which he accused Ben Gvir of ignoring the high murder rate in the Arab community.
Crime in the Arab community has skyrocketed, with more Arabs killed in homicides in 2023 than in any previous year, according to a report by the Abraham Initiatives, a coexistence organization that tracks crime statistics.
Many community leaders blame the police — overseen by Ben Gvir’s ministry — who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence. They also point to decades of neglect and discrimination by government offices as the root cause of the problem.
Arab municipalities and neighborhoods have a higher prevalence of unauthorized construction, according to a 2022 study by the Sikkuy-Aufoq nonprofit, whose mission statement is to promote equality between Arabs and Jewish citizens of Israel. In the Haifa district, for example, 55 percent of all illegally constructed structures are concentrated in the predominantly Arab communities of the Wadi Ara area east of Hadera.
In a statement released in April, Ben Gvir’s office wrote: “The transfer of the Real Estate Enforcement Division is a major milestone on the path to improving the State of Israel’s enforcement against illegal construction violations. As we have done so far when we doubled enforcement in the Negev, we will restore law and order even more vigorously. Those who break the law will encounter a firm hand and zero tolerance.”
Some advocates of reform in the enforcement of illegal construction in Israel say that many Arab violators build without permits because of a combination of institutional racism and inefficient bureaucracy that makes it harder for Arabs to obtain permits, though other observers of the issue dispute these claims.
The government allocated some NIS 28 million ($7.7 million) in 2023 for the purpose of bolstering the security of illegal West Bank outposts, established in violation of Israeli law, according to the left-wing Peace Now organization.
Ben Gvir himself is a disciple of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, who promoted a forceful transfer of Arabs from Israeli territory. Ben Gvir has called for resettling the Gaza Strip with Jewish Israelis and earlier this year prompted criticism by the US State Department for saying his right to security in the West Bank trumps Palestinians’ right to move freely in the area.
Last week, he called Arab lawmakers “terrorists” from the Knesset podium, prompting them to charge toward him and shout him down and earning him criticism from Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik.
Canaan Lidor contributed to this report.
