From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Far-right rapper and police volunteer ‘The Shadow’ gave briefing to Ben Gvir, top cops
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Far-right rapper and civilian police volunteer Yoav Eliasi, known by his stage name “The Shadow,” gave a briefing to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and senior police officers earlier today.
Footage of the meeting aired by Channel 12 News sparked outrage among Ben Gvir’s critics, amid claims that the far-right minister has been steadily working to politicize law enforcement.
The controversial musician heads a civilian security squad responsible for the Tel Aviv District. In the video of the briefing, he says his team is “doing nonstop work, providing governance, providing force” against crime in the area. He specifies that his team was especially active during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“There is no one from the command who ever stays in the office; we’re seeing everyone in the field. During Ramadan, everyone was in the field,” he tells the officers. Ben Gvir interjects to praise Eliasi, saying that the Muslim holy month this year “was the quietest Ramadan.”
During the June 2025 war with Iran, Eliasi sparked controversy when he and his civilian security squad detained a group of foreign journalists at a missile impact site in Tel Aviv, only for a police spokesman to subsequently release them.
Witnesses claimed he separated Israeli journalists from foreign ones in a stairwell and allowed the former group to proceed while detaining several non-Israeli reporters. After an appeal by the journalists’ union to the Tel Aviv District Police over the incident, police decided to prevent civilian security squads from interacting with reporters at “various sites.”
In a Facebook post, Ben Gvir defends his meeting with the rapper. “The pile-on and shaming that they are doing to my friend Yoav ‘The Shadow’ Eliasi over a distorted headline is simply a disgrace,” he writes.
יואב אליאסי (הראפר "הצל") מעביר "סקירה ביטחונית על פעילותו" לבן גביר ולבכירי המשטרה. אצל בן גביר טוענים – הוא מפקד יחידת הכוננת המחוזית של תל אביב ולכן נותן סקירה לבכירים@DaphnaLiel pic.twitter.com/PnslvVUTdF
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) May 13, 2026
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