Among the central narratives of the Israeli state, which has been torn apart by Hamas terrorist attacks and months of war and violence, is the idea that Israel’s ethos on firearms is different from that of the United States.
Both countries are characterized as gun-centered democracies, but Israel says that the United States is a country with too many guns and too few laws;Trust their condition and do not be afraid of each other.In Israel, it is often emphasized that bearing arms is not a right, but a privilege.
After October 7, in an astonishingly rapid change of circumstances, that privilege became a duty, if not a right. In reshaping Israel’s relationship with firearms, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is changing the country in ways that could have deep and lasting effects.
I have spent more than a decade working with Israeli public health scientists and safety activists to better understand how a country with many guns can respond. only a small part Number of U.S. civilian gun deaths.
Israel has significantly fewer intimate partner shootings, murders, gun suicides, accidental shootings, and mass shootings because the government bans the use of assault rifles on civilians and only grants handgun permits after an extensive vetting process. One reason is that it was published.
Effective gun control strengthened social cohesion. If Americans own guns based on a personal concept of self-defense, Israelis believe that gun ownership is a collective responsibility, and when gun policy comes up, they say, “I want to be like America.” “No,” he would clearly say.
But like many national stories, the description of Israeli guns is partly a myth.Armed settlers in the West Bank recklessly threatened and harassed Palestinians;. A robust smuggled arms market flourished in smaller cities, and the victims of those guns were overwhelmingly Israeli Arabs.
Still, American researchers like me can view Israel’s gun safety efforts as a model of successful public policy.
Now, that model is in jeopardy. The kidnapping and massacre of Israelis by Hamas represents a catastrophic failure to protect the state. It exploits the nation’s deep fears of being Jewish, vulnerable, and exposed.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a provocative Jewish supremacist who was once expelled from military service for his radicalism, seized the opportunity. Before the Hamas attack, he tried to weaken gun licensing regulations and ease the right to carry, but his arguments failed to gain traction. But now he and his allies have succeeded in quickly introducing legislation that would cause an unprecedented surge in armed Jewish civilians.
On October 22nd, the Haaretz newspaper ran a headline: “Carry a gun, it’s a lifesaver: Ben Gvir and his wife boast of dramatic increase in Israelis’ ability to carry weapons.”
At the inner A week after the attackwas purchased and distributed by the Netanyahu government. thousands of of firearms. A controversial Knesset Oversight Committee meeting revealed how dozens of unqualified individuals, including Ben Gvir’s personal staff appointees, were given temporary powers to approve gun license applications. detailed. March, According to HaaretzBen Gvir celebrated the issuance of 100,000 new permits in five months.
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It’s no surprise that gun sales to civilians spike in times of danger. Guns offer real protection in some cases and the promise of protection in others. But gun safety and security is not as simple as the NRA’s “good guys” versus “bad guys” dichotomy suggests. Armed civilians rarely stop crimes such as mass shootings.The potential security benefits of arming civilians are often offset by the risks.g Gun-related injuries and deaths occur every day.
Gun ownership can make people wary of government and regulation, and gun politics can become tribal, divisive, and even anti-democratic.
Gun sales hit record highs after the death of George Floyd and amid the 2020 pandemic and public fear, sometimes fueled by conspiracy theories. Gun dealers can exploit white fears about black violence and the fears of blacks and Latinos. Meanwhile, America’s pro-gun courts continue to overturn firearm safety laws enacted by state and local legislatures and voters.
The Middle East represents a completely different situation. But Netanyahu’s government is doing more than responding to the shocking disruption of the Hamas attack by implementing U.S. gun controls. Ben Gvir’s gun control document points to security deficiencies, undermines trust in democratic institutions, exacerbates divisions and does little to make everyone safer.
For example, Israeli Data shows that terrorist attacks are surprisingly low They are being held back by civilians with guns, but the government claims this is not the case. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said armed civilians were “saving lives.” He initially ignored the incident in which a “hero” armed civilian who actually thwarted a deadly terrorist attack was himself shot dead in the chaos. “We may have to pay a price, but that’s life,” Netanyahu said.
A disproportionate number of the newly distributed guns are likely to end up in the hands of supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative-religious coalition. Armed Jewish security forces were formed in mixed cities with Jewish and Palestinian Israeli nationals. Violence against Palestinians is escalating in the West Bank. For years, members of Jewish settler groups in the West Bank have been allowed to carry weapons, but Palestinians have not.
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What does it mean for Israel to adopt American-style armed individualism so rapidly?
In conversations last fall, Israeli Jewish and Palestinian clinicians, journalists, gun safety advocates, and academics said they were devastated by the Hamas attack and the plight of the hostages. They understood their fellow countrymen’s desire for firearms. At the same time, no one could believe how many guns were pouring in.
“People we never imagined are lining up for permits and carrying guns,” one activist said during a group conversation on Zoom. The other people on the phone also called out, “This is my husband.” “My grocery store.” “My father-in-law.” “Myself.”
Being “like America” emerged as a source of anxiety. One activist from a Tel Aviv suburb said as sirens wailed. He wondered how long it would take for the Gaza conflict to end. “How long will it be before we see our first American-style mass shooting?”
An ER doctor described an argument between neighbors who pulled guns during the argument. She asked questions that would have been unimaginable a few months ago. She asked, “Do you think the gun safety community in the United States would be willing to take up our cause?”
A leading peace activist said that “mass shootings are being carried out violently over democratic procedures,” and that “authoritarianism is on the rise” and “police responses to anti-war demonstrators are becoming increasingly violent.” Stated.
Later, as the human catastrophe in Gaza deepened, another activist asked: “What kind of violence is being carried out in our name?”
by In January, as anti-war protests gathered pace, one journalist wrote that Israelis were “under siege not only by the enemy but also by the liberal moderns of the West who thought they were one of them.” Inside, I wondered if it was possible to disarm them. Is it possible to imagine or “realize peace”?
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The proliferation of guns in Israel, which began as a response to an external threat, has become the executor of a growing domestic agenda. “Mr. Ben Gvir does not really want Israelis to feel safe,” a Palestinian Israeli lawyer explained. “He wants settlers and madmen to terrorize others.”
The gun safety movement has mobilized in opposition, but no matter how that effort develops, the decisions Israel has already made regarding guns could go a long way in shaping the country’s future.
Perhaps this country will begin the hard work of reversing Ben Gvir’s disastrous gun policies and countering their polarizing health, social, and political effects. Such an approach would require regional stability and a renewal of what Haaretz calls “the contract between states and peoples.”
Alternatively, Israel could remain a fortress, with its people taking a “stand-up” posture of self-defense, arming itself more prepared than ever for threats, real or speculative.
If I’ve learned anything from studying U.S. gun policy, it’s that armed and internally divided nations are less able to negotiate, legislate effectively, and reach meaningful compromises. Thing.
Jonathan M. Metzl (@Jonathan Metzl) He directs the Department of Medicine, Health, and Sociology at Vanderbilt University and is the author, most recently, of .What Happened to Us: Living and Dying in the Land of Weapons” This article was created with the help of Zocalo public square.
