ISRAEL’S police chief has slammed a new national guard that will answer to extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as “needless.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed to the new militia on Sunday as a means to keep Mr Ben-Gvir in his ruling coalition after protests forced him to postpone an assault on the judiciary.

But critics say the new force could be a private army for the far-right minister, who has several convictions for incitement and for supporting a Jewish terrorist group. 

Mr Ben-Gvir claims it would fill gaps in areas where police are spread thin — including in “crime-ridden” Arab neighbourhoods — and in dealing with ethnic violence.

In 2021, a general strike by Palestinians across the occupied territories and in Israel itself was called during a brutal Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip. 

The strike prompted an eruption of ethnic violence inside Israel, though the Israeli Communist Party said few Jewish perpetrators were held to account. Few expect Mr Ben-Gvir’s new militia to be even-handed in its approach to policing such incidents.

It would be established at a time of surging tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, tied to accelerating colonisation of Palestinian territory and expressed in the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2006 last year — with this year on course to surpass that grim record.

The minister, who has repeatedly carried out provocative acts such as entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in January, is likely to further inflame tensions.

Israeli media reported that the current police chief, Kobi Shabtai, opposes the new guard.

In a letter to Mr Ben-Gvir and Mr Netanyahu, Mr Shabtai said the force was “needless” and would confuse citizens and officers, the reports said. 

Moshe Karadi, a former police chief, said Saturday it was dangerous to grant a politician such power, suggesting Mr Ben-Gvir could use the force to stage a coup.

Other ministers have reportedly objected to their budgets being cut to pay for it.

Mr Netanyahu’s office says a committee composed of Israel’s existing security agencies would determine the guard’s powers and whether it would be subordinate to the police, or take orders directly from Mr Ben-Gvir, as he demands. It has 90 days to make its recommendations.