Lapid: ‘Crazy increase’ in crime under Ben Gvir, with murders of women spiking

By Sam Sokol 24 November 2025, 3:00 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Itamar Ben Gvir as a failed national security minister under whose tenure crime has seen a “crazy increase” by all metrics.

“I have two data points for you: the first is that during the term of the current government, there has been a 74% increase in the number of women murdered in Israel. And the second is that most of the murdered women are Jewish,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, citing a statistic recently published by the Israel Women’s Network.

Lapid says that he is not bringing this up because “an Arab woman who is murdered is less terrible than a Jewish woman” but due to the fact that Ben Gvir “is trying to sell us is that violence and murder are an ‘Arab problem,’ and why should we care if Arabs kill each other.”

“It’s not only disgusting racism, it’s also not true. It’s a lie. Most of the female murder victims are Jewish. Most of the people harmed by protection rackets are Jewish. Most of the victims of property crimes are Jewish. And of course, the overwhelming majority of terror victims are Jewish,” Lapid declares.

Instead of showing up at the scene of yesterday’s anti-LGBT hate stabbing in Beersheba or the shooting near Tel Aviv University, Ben Gvir “drove to Lakiya in the Negev to fight with the head of the local council, so he could have a video of himself arguing with Arabs,” Lapid asserts.

“That’s all he knows how to do: fight with Arabs and film it,” Lapid continues, arguing that “personal security in the State of Israel has never been so bad,” listing a variety of recent incidents, including grenade-throwing, murders and other crimes.

“There is almost no business in the State of Israel that doesn’t pay protection, or has received threats to pay protection… People are afraid. Afraid to walk around the street. Afraid of crime families,” he continues.

“There has never been a failure like Ben Gvir in the history of the country. This is what happens when you take a criminal with 53 indictments and eight convictions, who never served a minute in the army, and make him the minister in charge of internal security,” Lapid says. “Then the citizens of Israel have no security, there are only videos of Ben Gvir fighting with Arabs.”