Ben Gvir conditioned the ratification of his establishment on postponing judicial amendments. What is the National Guard in Israel and what are its goals?

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir revealed that he agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone judicial amendments in exchange for ratifying the creation of the so-called "National Guard" that was announced on June 21, 2022, so what is this new entity? What are its objectives?

In June 2022, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev announced the launch of the Israel Guard, also known as the National Guard, to serve as part of the Border Police force and an arm of the Israel Police.

According to the Israeli plan, Border Guard units would be transformed into a rapid reaction corps in case of emergency and to confront security threats from any source.

Thousands of trained personnel will also be recruited from National Guard units and will provide deterrence against those planning violent unrest, according to the plan.

The work of the National Guard will allow the police to focus on their traditional routine tasks.

As for the border guard, it consists of 3 types of forces: the regular force, which includes 8,46 fighters, the reserve force, which includes 5 reserve companies with 300,<> fighters, and the volunteer force, which includes <> volunteer policemen.

The financial cost of establishing the National Guard is about $31 million as a one-time budget, while the annual budget of this entity is $17 million.

According to Ben Gvir, he agreed to postpone the judicial amendments in exchange for Knesset ratification of the creation of the National Guard.

Members of the opposition and the Israeli defense establishment have warned against giving Ben Gvir control of the border guards, stressing that he could use them to build a militia that would report directly to his ministerial office, not to the army or police chains of command.

Ben Gvir rejected the warnings, stressing that he was not trying to "create a special army" through his plan to change the status of the Border Police within the security establishment, stressing that the "National Guard" would supplement the workforce in areas with a small police presence, such as the southern Negev region, according to Israeli media.