Ameer Makhoul: National Guard a bigger win for far-right than judicial reform

Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian analyst based in the city of Haifa in Israel, told Middle East Eye that Netanyahu's promise to far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the creation of a "National Guard" - which came after Ben-Gvir agreed to delay passing of judicial reforms - was a bigger win for the far-right than the reforms themselves.

"This promise, if implemented, is more important to Ben-Gvir than the legislative issue and the judicial coup," he explained.

"He wanted a judicial coup in order to remove all procedural and legal obstacles to the implementation of his project based on ethnic cleansing, the demolition of homes in the Negev and the demolition of entire villages, in addition to the suppression of Arabs in coastal cities by the National Guard and the local militias set up by his party."

He said the National Guard, which Ben-Gvir claims is needed to increase security around Israel and would be loyal to his National Security Ministry, would have as its "core ideology" hostility to Palestinian citizens of Israel.

"The question is if things stop at this point, because the issue of the Israeli crisis is still a rolling crisis...it may remain for many years, and then the National Guard will be an additional tool in the hands of the minister, while the police are in a state of disharmony with him because it is subject to the law before the minister," he explained.

"Practically it is the organisational structure and apparatus conducive to racist fascist policies."