Bedouin leaders blast Ben Gvir over days-long police raid of Bedouin town, urge PM to intervene

Ra’am lawmaker Waleed Alhawashleh, a member of the Bedouin community, blasts National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as a “failed minister” after he toured Tarabin al-Sana this morning.

Police launched a sweeping raid on the Bedouin village on Monday in the wake of several arson incidents in nearby Jewish areas and have been operating there since.

Ben Gvir has made visits to Tarabin al-Sana several times this week while flanked by heavy security. Today, he walked through the town as Border Police forces fanned out and conducted searches in houses along the way.

At a gathering in the village, Alhawashleh decries the far-right minister. “He’s demolished some 5,000 houses in the Negev. There are over 250 murders in Arab society,” he says.

He calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene in the operation underway in Tarabin al-Sana.

“I know that the prime minister is currently in the United States, but there must be a directive to the police” to put an end to the “campaign of incitement,” Alhawashleh says.

“This man [Ben Gvir] cannot make choices in a sane manner. He comes here, and he wants to cause damage to the relations between Jews and Bedouins in the Negev, and we aren’t interested in this,” he continues.

Rahat Mayor Talal Alkernawi, speaking to the crowd, derides Ben Gvir as a “megalomaniac” seeking heightened tensions between Jews and Arabs in the south.

“We have nothing against the Israel Police, but this violent megalomanic who comes and essentially wants to set this place on fire,” he says.

The raid is underway following several arson incidents in Jewish towns adjacent to Tarabin al-Sana over the past week.

Masked individuals vandalized and set fire to several cars in Giv’ot Bar and Mishmar Hanegev, and last night, five vehicles were set alight at the entrance to Lehavim.

The first arson attack was thought to be revenge for a police operation on Friday, in which officers entered the village searching for a stolen horse.

Police characterize both arson incidents as “revenge operations.” However, Alkernawi claims that the second arson incident, which took place at a gas station on the edge of a Jewish town, is related to an ongoing family dispute between two Bedouin families.

Alkernawi says that he and other Bedouin politicians “condemn all violence.”

“We condemn any and all harm to our neighbors and their property,” he says, but adds that “to come and incite against us [Bedouins] is unacceptable.”