‘Terror wave’ reignites Israeli debate over armed civilians

As Israel confronts a series of violent attacks, many in the country are racing to obtain firearm permits - reviving debate on the role armed civilians play in countering terrorism.

Although a number of Israelis use guns throughout their period of conscripted military service, there is no inherent right to bear arms in the country, unlike in the United States.

Civilians seeking firearms in Israel must apply for a permit and meet certain criteria, including a health declaration approved by a doctor and completion of required firearm training, according to the 2018 Firearm Training Ordinance.

In Israel, the recent wave of violence prompted requests for these permits to spike - in March of this year, the number of applications stood at over 14,000, a marked increase from the 8,983 licenses sought throughout 2020, according to Channel 12.

Eric Benjamin, a member of The Israeli Association for Promoting Weapon Culture in Israel (RA) - a firearms advocacy and education organization - told i24NEWS that the renewed interest in civilian gun ownership shows increased vigilance towards countering hidden threats.

“This is a very strange conflict. It’s not like Russia and Ukraine where there’s an army and you know how it looks… You don’t know where it's going to come from,” he said.

Last week’s attack on Tel Aviv’s lively Dizengoff Street, where a terrorist opened fire on patrons enjoying a weekend night at the bar, left a number of Israelis wary of additional strikes on other civilian spaces.

“The feeling that you want to protect yourself came from this - this is not the front line. I am drinking coffee, and I want to be able to protect myself while I’m drinking coffee,” Benjamin told i24NEWS.

He added that the average civilian has a greater chance of encountering an assailant in the streets than a law enforcement officer as passersby are the ones being targeted during a terror attack.

“The wolf does not jump on the shepherd, you know. He jumps on the sheep. They prey on the weak, they prey on the civilians,” Benjamin said.

“You can’t flood the streets in Israel [with patrolmen], there’s not enough police officers as it is, [even] before these terror attacks. So we’ve got to depend on ourselves.”

It’s a sentiment which was even shared by Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Last month, the premier urged Israelis with gun permits to arm themselves with “vigilance and responsibility” in order to counter further violence.

However, Rela Mazali, co-founder and coordinator of the Gun Free Kitchen Tables (GFKT) coalition, told i24NEWS that there’s more to the picture. 

Mazali’s coalition is a small arms disarmament and gun control initiative composed of several civil society groups affiliated with the Isha L’Isha Feminist Center in Haifa, Israel.

For the coordinator and her group, guns and additional numbers of armed civilians represent “a danger, not a solution.” 

The number of attacks thwarted by civilians and off-duty security guards is “very small,” Mazali said, citing statistics provided to GFKT by the state.

“The role that civilians - armed civilians and off-duty guards - actually play in stopping attacks is very minimal,” the co-founder told i24NEWS, adding “It’s usually security forces.”

Mazali also warned that as the number of armed civilians increases, so does the potential for mistakes with deadly consequences.

Another area of concern is the large circulation of illegal or stolen weapons in Israel - a 2020 report from Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, indicated approximately 400,000 such arms were being spread throughout the country.

The co-founder added that an influx in weapons could potentially exacerbate these numbers and contribute to additional gun violence, which also rose to public attention as a major problem facing Israel’s Arab communities in recent months.

“The state has already recognized it as a huge issue,” Mazali told i24NEWS.

“But if the sources continue to grow and expand, it won’t be contained.”

The possibility of increased domestic violence - which soared in Israel during the global pandemic - is also another cause for alarm for the feminist coalition.

Mazali cautioned that as more households acquire weapons, the women within them could also fall victim to “coercive control” by their partners and face greater risks of domestic abuse.

But on the other side of the hot-button issue, guns are seen as tools to prevent such situations. 

For Orin Julie, a member of The Israeli Association for Promoting Weapon Culture in Israel (RA) and a social media influencer, firearms are symbols of female empowerment and a way for women to protect themselves.

“I think that more women should carry firearms - I believe that it will make them more confident, like it did for me,” Julie told i24NEWS.

Julie, known in the media as Israel’s “Queen of Guns,” served previously in the country’s military as a combat soldier before her rise to online fame as a firearms model.

She told i24NEWS that was abused as a child, but her experience with guns later during her period of service provided her with a feeling of confidence and security.

“When I joined the army as a combat soldier, this was the first time I felt protected. I felt like I could protect myself - I don’t need anyone to save me anymore,” Julie said.

The influencer told i24NEWS she believes domestic violence in Israel is not incited by firearms availability, but by harmful relationship dynamics.

“I think that unsafe relationships will always be unsafe. It doesn’t matter if the man has a gun or not. If a husband wants to attack someone, he will take a knife, and he will do it, and we’ve seen it in Israel many times.”

Julie said that “it does not matter if he has a firearm or not - he will be violent. We need to be able to protect ourselves.”

She added that her objective with her advocacy is not the widespread distribution of firearms, but rather, to create a culture which emphasizes firearm responsibility and the importance of proper training.

“What I am trying to promote is a very responsible gun culture here in Israel. I’m not saying ‘Let’s give firearms to everyone!’ No, I’m talking about responsible ownership,” the influencer told i24NEWS.

“If responsible citizens carry firearms, they can be like first responders. We just want to be the first to react to the situation until the police come. We don’t want to replace the police - I really believe that armed civilians are super effective.”

When asked about a possible influx of stolen arms with increased civilian gun ownership, Julie explained that illegal weapons in Israel already outnumber properly registered firearms.

There are approximately 140,000 gun owners with permits in the country, a sum which is significantly smaller than the figure listed in the Knesset’s report.

“I don’t know if it will cause more illegal firearms, but I do know that more responsible people will carry firearms and will be able to respond to a terrorist when something happens,” Julie told i24NEWS.

“You can’t control it. I just want to be able to protect myself,” she said.