The budget is to be taken from government decision 550, which was approved in 2021 to reduce economic and social gaps between Arab society and the rest of the population.
The Israeli government approved a plan on Wednesday to allocate approximately NIS 497 million toward integrating Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents into the Israeli Police, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The plan was spearheaded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Equality Minister May Golan, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
As part of the new program, about NIS 364.5 million will be allocated to the Shin Bet to establish a specialized unit to target illegal weapons smuggling and to bolster the intelligence and operational capabilities of law enforcement. The Shin Bet was also allocated NIS 35 million to hire 130 personnel.
On top of that, approximately NIS 132.4 million of the budget will go toward the Israel Police to establish a dedicated unit for Arab-sector crime and to expand the police’s technological and operational capabilities to that end.
The budget is to be taken from government decision 550, which was approved in 2021 to reduce economic and social gaps between Arab society and the rest of the population. The plan includes budgets for employment, vocational training, education, transportation, infrastructure, industrial zones, and strengthening local authorities.
Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy and others conduct a meeting to discuss current police operations against Arab sector organized crime. Image released on July 7, 2026. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)
Activists, human rights lawyers decry budget allocations
The Mossawa Center for the Rights of Arab Citizens denounced the new budget allocations on Wednesday, adding that they would pursue legal action to “ensure that the diverted budgets are returned” to their original intended destination.
On top of this, attorney Hagar Shachter of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel also censured the move. “The state must act to eradicate crime in Arab society,” she said. “But [this] is not the way to do so….Transferring funds to the Shin Bet, which is not authorized to operate in the field of criminal law enforcement, is prohibited and will lead to serious violations of human rights, deepen inequality, and harm the fundamental principles of democracy.”
Her colleague, attorney Elsa Bonier of the same organization, noted that “this is a time when organized crime in Jewish society is routinely dealt with using ordinary crime-fighting tools within the Israel Police.”
“The Shin Bet is a powerful organization with extraordinary security allowances, including secret mass surveillance, administrative detentions, and preventing people from meeting with a lawyer,” Bonier added. “The insistence…on including the Shin Bet in the struggle [against crime] constitutes an…exploitation of the crime crisis in Arab society and the plight of Arab citizens.”
Government sources clarified on Tuesday that the service is not supposed to replace the police in investigating routine criminal offenses and that its activity will focus mainly on weapons smuggling, criminal organizations, and incidents with a security connection. So far, the full scope of the powers to be exercised and the exact division of the budget among the Shin Bet, the police, and other bodies have not been made public.
Arab sector crime ‘has become a national plague,’ Netanyahu says
Netanyahu issued a statement on the new budget allocations on Wednesday, commending his colleagues and emphasizing the importance of fighting crime in the Arab sector.
“Involving the Shin Bet in the fight against crime in Arab society, which has become a national plague, is dramatic news and a significant step in the all-out war we are waging against criminal organizations,” the prime minister said. “We will not accept a reality of violence, extortion, and murder in our streets.”
Ben-Gvir celebrated the budget approval in a X/Twitter post, saying that the aim of the plan is to “restore security to Israeli citizens and strike organized crime with an iron fist.”
“This is another significant step in our battle against criminal terror,” he added.
Golan made a similar statement on X, claiming that the 550 plan was “funneling billions of shekels without oversight and control,” and that she had presented the prime minister with “classified intelligence information showing the leakage of public funds to criminal organizations,” issues which she claimed were remedied with the latest budget re-allocation.
“The decision we approved today turns the [situation] on its head,” Golan wrote. “Instead of public funds strengthening criminal organizations, they will strengthen the Shin Bet and the Israel Police in an uncompromising fight against them.”
Arab rights org. tries to dissuade gov’t from implementing new plan
The Mossawa Center issued a warning on Tuesday that it would consider legal action if the budget proposal were approved.
One of the central claims in Mossawa’s appeal concerns an alternative funding source. According to information that the center says it received from the National Security Ministry, there is a remaining budget balance of about NIS 750 million under government decision 549, the dedicated plan to fight crime and violence in Arab society. The center argues that these funds could cover enforcement needs without cutting into the civilian development budget designed to narrow gaps.
“The government’s conduct is tainted by bad faith, extreme unreasonableness, and arbitrary governance, alongside ultra vires action, breach of a governmental promise, and harm to the right to equality,” said Suha Salman Musa, co-director of Mossawa. “The attempt to harm the budgets of decision 550 is dangerous, unequal, and irresponsible.”
According to Salem Abbasi, head of the socioeconomic unit at the center, diverting budgets intended to address long-standing discrimination undermines the principle of equality, the binding status of decision 550, and the social and economic goals set out in it.
“The decision will lead to widening gaps, weakening prevention mechanisms, and deepening the structural conditions that fuel crime and violence,” Abbasi wrote.
Anna Barsky contributed to this report.