Protecting a Minister

Hebron: the city of the crazy Jews. This, at least to me, is the perfect way to describe the city. It's a city with 1000 Jews within the municipality of Hebron, another 15,000+ in the surrounding settlements, 280,000 Arabs within Hebron itself, and many more in the surrounding villages. It's a city where Jews live on top of Arabs and vice versa, and the only thing standing in the way of them is a soldier like me with a gun. In short, as a Jew, to live here means to be a bit crazy, and that characterization fits perfectly to the minister that resides there.

Due to the craziness of the city, it makes my job more interesting. Unlike standing on the Lebanese or Syrian border, where barely anything happens, Hebron is a city with a lot of action, always getting to do and see pretty exciting things. One of which is protecting a minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.

For anyone who might know me, you'd know that Ben Gvir is the last minister I'd ever be excited to see. He's an inflammatory and racist minister in no way qualified to be in the Knesset, and all the more so in his current role. He's a minister who didn't even serve in the army, and now there are talks of giving him control of a newly formed National Guard, or as some are coining it "Ben Gvirs Militia." In a nutshell, the guy is crazy, and well I guess it makes sense he and his family live in Hebron.

Despite my displeasure with him, I have to admit that it is pretty cool. He is at the end of the day a minister in the Knesset, and one with a relatively high profile living in a relatively hostile area. As such, he has a substantially large security team with pretty intense procedures whenever he enters or leaves his neighborhood. He always has his security guards walking around the area, looking for threats or possible threats that can be made towards him. And, when I'm on duty, and Ben Gvir is "on the move," I automatically become a part of his security. I end up defending the crazy minister.

Ben Gvir and his family live in Givat Avot, a neighborhood of the settlement Kiriyat Arba. However, this neighborhood isn't actually in Kiryat Arba. If you leave the settlement from the southern gate, make a right and then a left about 200 meters up, you'll be passing some Palestianian houses and shops until you arrive to the gate of Givat Avot. Carved out of a Palestianin neighborhood, is a little Jewish neighborhood called Givat Avot housing about 35 Jewish families, a stone throw way in most directions from Palestinian properties. This neighborhood describes Hebrons complexity in a nutshell.

*Shmira (guarding) outside Givat Avot

At the gate of Givat Avot always stands two soldiers, that's where I am. Our job is to protect the neighborhood. We can only allow Jews into the neighborhood and more specifically those Jews who have a reason for being there (many Jews who dislike Ben Gvir try to come and demonstrate, but they are obviously not allowed into the neighborhood). More importantly, with no exceptions whatsoever, Palestinians are not allowed in. I stand there at the gate and do my job.

Many kids from the neighborhood love to walk around and visit the soldiers who they love. They love talking to the soldiers and just being with us. However, no one likes this more than Ben Gvirs son. During one of my first shifts at the gate, Ben Gvirs son comes to myself and my fellow soldier at the gate. He starts talking and we make conversation, helping to pass along the time of this four hour shift. I ask him eventually "you live in the neighborhood right, what family are you from?" He responds by saying "Mishpachat Ben Gvir." "Oh so you're father is Itamar right" I say, and he responds "yes my father is in the Knesset right now." This was pretty cool so I asked him many eight year old appropriate questions about what it's like for your father to be a minister. We continue talking, I tell him I'm from New York, and then eventually he leaves to go back home.

The next day I am on shift again, and I see a car I didn't recognize yet, so I approach the car to talk to the driver. She lowered her window, and then from the back I see this same kid who interrupts and says "mom remember this is the soldier I told you about from New York." Knowing that this is Ben Gvirs kid, and since he just said "mom," I knew this was Mrs. Ben Gvir, so I obviously let her into the neighborhood. Even funnier, if this kid told his mom about me, what if he told his father about me? Maybe Itamar has heard of me?

Whenever Ben Gvir enters or leaves the neighborhood, there is a whole procedure that takes place. His security guards notify us about an hour before, and they come out and scan the area. I assume they look for any bombs or explosives someone might have placed, or any other possible threats to the minister. A few minutes before his arrival or departure, his guards come, we don't allow any cars to enter or leave, and his security teams places us soldiers in two different areas to make sure nobody appoaches and to look for anything suspicious. We stand position a few minutes before, and then Ben Gvirs car approaches, enters or leaves the neighborhood, and that's it. He then drives away in his black-tinted-window car, where you can't even tell that anybody is sitting in the back seat.

This is a pretty cool procedure. Sure it is routine, but getting to protect a minister, despite how crazy he is, is something I never imagined I'd be doing or ever do. I, at the end of the day, become a part of a ministers security team. Next time I'm hoping it would be for a minister I'd like, but this will have to do for now.

On top of that, I have seen the minister several times just because he happens to live in the city I am stationed. I was standing at the gate one Shabbat, and I see him walking with his security to another house in the neighborhood, where there was clearly a big gathering happening. Furthermore, every Shabbat that he comes home, him and his wife take a Shabbas walk as Shabbat is winding down. They have a full security team around then, so it's not the private walk one night imagine. Once on his walk he gave myself and my fellow soldiers a wave as we were driving in the patrol car, and once I was on a run and ran right past him on the same side of the street. Since it was Shabbat I veered into the car-less street to give the minister some room, and to not anger his security team who anyway mostly recognize me.

The city of the crazy Jews might have the craziest of them all, and to think he serves in the government. However, to be a part of his security and see a minister of that profile on a weekly basis is certainly a cool thing to experience. I now have just under two months left in this crazy city of Hebron, we'll see how crazy it gets from here.