For Israel’s far-right Police Minister, ‘governance’ means suppression and racism

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on a tour of Umm al-Fahm on 7 September 2025

Jack Khoury writes in Haaretz on 9 September 2025:

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived on Sunday in the northern Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm with an entourage of police and Border Police along with representatives from the Israel Land Authority. The far right-wing minister and his assistants claimed that they had come on their “governance” tour to highlight the steps that were being taken to combat violations of construction regulations.

In actuality, it was another personal propaganda show on Ben-Gvir’s part that was aimed at provoking confrontation and to reinforce his political standing among his far-right base – even at the expense of burning bridges with the Arab public. To Ben-Gvir’s disappointment, the group of photographers and the police delegation that accompanied him to Umm al-Fahm weren’t drawn into the provocation and realized that he had come to generate “likes” on social media.

“Visits like these aren’t professional. They’re ostentatious shows designed just to incite and threaten,” Umm al-Fahm’s mayor, Dr. Samir Mahamid, said. “We’re not saying ‘welcome,’ either to the minister or the racist discourse that he brings with him.”

In the course of the visit, Ben-Gvir claimed that governance was coming to Umm al-Fahm “after three decades of neglect and abandonment.” But the national security minister, who is responsible for the personal safety of all Israelis, including the country’s Arab citizens, forgot that governance doesn’t consist of issuing demolition orders. Governance is first and foremost personal safety on the street. It’s systematically addressing the wave of violence that is raging in Israeli Arab society, investment in educational and social welfare resources and bridging the disparities that have developed over the years.

They’re the same gaps that to be bridged require investment in resources including in planning and construction, the expansion of the municipal boundaries of Arab communities, the approval of master plans and increases in funding for development.

According to Haaretz’s tally, there have been 175 Israeli Arab victims of homicide since the beginning of the year, including nine in Umm al-Fahm alone and several others in the surrounded Wadi Ara region. That’s about a 15 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024. But Ben-Gvir didn’t address that reality in the course of his tour of the city. Nor did he address the minuscule rate – 9 percent – at which the Israel Police is solving homicide cases among the country’s Arabs.

The prospect of Ben-Gvir’s governance tour also didn’t appear to deter Arab crime organizations in any exceptional way. Just last week, there were murders in Nahf and Arabeh in northern Israel in which the killers arrived at the scene dressed as policemen. Perhaps that’s because real governance isn’t measured through performances in front of the camera but rather through painstaking and constant work behind the scenes – shoring up investigative capabilities, violence prevention among youth, proper funding of social welfare services and a large number of other steps.

Ben-Gvir has been doing precisely the opposite – turning the police into his personal tool, giving it the reputation that it is his political arm and as a practical matter forsaking its core role – providing personal safety.

Apparently anyone who still expects the senior police brass to stand up Ben-Gvir and let him know that that’s not how you build governance will be sorely disappointed. The system of checks and balances has been eroded and responsibility on the local scene has remained with local mayors and council heads, particularly the chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities, Haim Bibas.

Bibas knows the mayor of Umm al-Fahm well. Mayor Samir Mahamid is one of the local leaders who has made great efforts to combat violence and to try to stop incitement. Such voices are needed to advance public discourse. But so long as Ben-Gvir make social media “likes” the priority over human lives, the violence will continue to exact its price in blood. And his version of governance will come down to suppression and racism instead of assuring go parents that their children will return home safely.

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