Netanyahu’s ‘national guard’ deal with Ben-Gvir raises fears of intercommunal violence

Ben-Gvir’s assertion that the force will focus on ‘areas with criminal organisations and mixed cities’ raises the spectre of intercommunal conflict. Photograph: Eyal Warshavsky/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

After a dramatic day of wildcat strikes that shut down much of the country last month, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally announced that his government’s controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary would be suspended until the Knesset’s summer session.

The Israeli leader struggled for hours to reach a compromise with the recalcitrant far-right elements of his coalition pushing for the judicial changes. But that evening, the extremist anti-Arab Jewish Power party, led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said it had agreed to back the pause in exchange for a promise to create the minister’s long sought-after “national guard”.