Smotrich backs Ben Gvir’s raid on Bedouin town, calls for it to be expanded to more Arab locales

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich endorses National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s controversial crackdown on Bedouin communities in the Negev, declaring that “an unimaginable amount of illegal weapons are circulating in the Negev, weapons that threaten the lives of citizens, the rule of law and the sovereignty of the State of Israel.”

Police shot and killed a man in his home Saturday night in Tarabin al-Sana, during a week-long raid in the Bedouin town. Last week, Ben Gvir vowed to press on with the raid during an address to reporters near the town’s entrance, cordoned off by cinderblocks.

“I say to everyone who is law-abiding, there is nothing to fear, but to everyone who isn’t law-abiding, we will thrash you,” Ben Gvir said at the time.

The National Guard, which is part of the Border Police gendarmerie force rather than standard police, has been overseeing an operation in Tarabin al-Sana that began December 28. Police cordoned off the town with cinderblocks and began requiring anyone who exits and enters the village to show identity cards to security forces.

Addressing reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich calls for “collecting weapons, real enforcement, and restoring security to the citizens of the Negev,” insisting that “this is a test of sovereignty, and we do not intend to fail in it.”

“I would like to strengthen my friend, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, for his determined struggle and to call on him to stand strong and expand this operation to Lod, Jaffa, the north and the triangle region and return governance to all the citizens of Israel,” Smotrich adds, referring to an epidemic of violent crime in Israel’s Arab community that has worsened significantly during Ben Gvir’s three years in office.