“More than 185,000 Israelis have applied for gun licenses” since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, David Bavli, a lawyer who advises National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, tells JNS.
“There are two stages in getting a license to carry weapons: First, checking who is eligible, and second—after you go to a shooting range—who should get the license. More than 50,000 got the license, which doubles the number of Israelis carrying weapons these days.”
Up until Oct. 6, 2023, a limited number of specific people were allowed to issue these licenses, but after the Hamas attack, the Firearms Licensing Department was flooded with requests for permits. The ministry then added licensing officials for whom this wasn’t their day job, for example advisers to Ben-Gvir and 18-year-olds who are performing National Service in the Knesset.
The issue has now been brought before the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, which needs to decide: Were the permits issued by these people legal?
“Our petition was submitted in January 2024. And there we claimed that during the months of October through the end of December [2023], weapon licenses were given out by people without authority—that do not have the right to approve weapons [ownership],” Rotem Bavli Dvir, a lawyer who represented the Movement for Quality Government in Israel in a hearing on the issue on Tuesday, tells JNS.
“We demand that the weapons that were approved by those who are not authorized officials should be collected, for fear that they ended up in the wrong hands, with those who are not entitled to carry weapons.”
David Bavli said the petition is completely political. “This is a ridiculous event. There are some officials who were in the minister’s office, who are trusted public servants. This is a completely political petition. It is difficult for them to deal with the fact that Israeli citizens are arming themselves, and there is an interest here in portraying Minister Ben-Gvir as leading illegal moves.”
At the end of the hearing, Yitzhak Amit, acting president of the Supreme Court, told the parties that “the number of weapons distributed by unauthorized people is bigger that he originally thought.” Amit added that he will wait for the state to respond before deciding, maybe, to freeze some of these licenses or ask for them to be reexamined.
Amit and Justices Yael Wilner and Ofer Grosskopf asked the state to explore ways to suspend the licenses, giving it until Nov. 20 to respond.
On this decision, David Bavli tells JNS: “What is more unusual than the case of war, and even the Security Cabinet supported our move. That’s why we hired people who are state employees, even if they are essentially in positions of trust or Knesset employees, to help issue the licenses. I’m afraid this will require people to go through the process from the beginning.
Rotem Bavli Dvir says, “Of course, we are not ignoring that on the October 7 there was an upheaval and the sense of personal security was damaged, and actions had to be taken to restore security. But we are a country of law. And things should be done according to the law, especially when it has to do with human life.”
Amichai Stein is the diplomatic correspondent for Kan 11, IPBC.
