In the aftermath of October 7, Israel is experiencing an unprecedented armament of civilians. Far-right Interior Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is exploiting deep-seated fears to build a new paramilitary power base of vigilante groups.
On December 21, 2023, “The Shadow”—Yoav Eliassi, an Israeli rapper and far-right activist—posted a photo to Facebook (where he has over 700,000 followers) standing in front of a tactical gear shop. Clad in olive fatigues, legs splayed like a fighting cock, he brandished an Israeli Arad assault rifle slung between his legs, while a pistol hung from his hip. Despite his militarized appearance, Eliassi is a civilian. On his shoulder, a Hebrew badge reads Kitat Konenut—civilian counter-terrorism squads originally established in border side towns and West Bank settlements.
After the October 7 Hamas attacks, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir rolled the idea out nationwide. By June 2025, the National Security Ministry reports that some 403,000 license applications have been submitted, and a total of about 335,000 firearms licenses have been approved — marking an armament surge unprecedented in Israel’s history (before October 7 there were about 172,000 permit holders, so the number of legally armed Israelis has nearly doubled).
The fetishization of weapons as extensions of male dominance has become central to Israeli society’s postwar identity
Civil armament thus became both a coping mechanism and a public performance of virility. The humiliation of October 7 shattered Israeli assumptions of strength and security. Reports of sexual violence by Hamas fighters intensified a sense of gendered vulnerability. Men across the country, stripped of faith in the state’s protection, reached for the gun.
In late July 2024, several Israeli prison guards were arrested by military police for allegedly raping a Palestinian detainee. When news broke, a mob—led by masked soldiers and Members of Knesset—stormed the court to free the suspects. In the public uproar that followed, Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky was asked whether it was legitimate “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum”. He replied: “Yes! If he’s Hamas—everything is legitimate! Everything!”
The fetishization of weapons as extensions of male dominance has become central to Israeli society’s postwar identity. Guns are no longer utilitarian tools but symbols of power, revenge, and sexual control. They are both status symbols and phallic projections—totems of a wounded masculinity seeking reassertion. The first to pay the price in armed chaos are always the same: women, children, minorities, and the stateless. In Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Israel proper, a society that confuses the gun for a phallus has little room for anyone it deems weak.
Eliassi appeared in uniform, armed, and directing volunteers while stopping Arab bystanders
The collapse of Israel’s assumed invulnerability has activated the classic repertoire of toxic masculinity: aggression, control, fear of vulnerability. This has fed a political culture that rewards hard men with hard weapons. Into this void stepped Ben Gvir.
Ben Gvir, a far-right provocateur who, according to his own account, faced 53 indictments and was convicted of eight criminal offenses—including rioting, obstructing a police officer, incitement to racism, and two convictions for possessing and two for supporting terrorist propaganda, became National Security Minister in late 2022. In lieu of working through police channels—who often ignore his orders—he has used gun distribution to build a paramilitary power base.
Playing on genuine fears, he manipulates the Kitat Konenut system to assemble a non-regulated militia, distinct from the police or army. Ben Gvir’s personal record contradicts his macho brand: due to his reach criminal record he was rejected by the military and was considered ineligible for a gun license. After entering the Knesset in 2021, he received a personal handgun for protection. On at least two occasions, he brandished it publicly—once at Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, another time during a dispute with Arab parking attendants. No charges were filed.
In 2014, Eliassi founded a group called the “Lions of the Shadow” to physically confront left-wing demonstrators. In 2024, shortly after a Kitat Konenut was launched in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Eliassi appeared in uniform, armed, and directing volunteers while stopping Arab bystanders. A public scandal followed. Instead of being investigated, he was praised and promoted by Ben Gvir, who awarded him an honorary police rank: Chief Inspector.
Dr. Eran Tzidkiyahu is a French-Israeli scholar. His PhD from the Paris institute of political sciences deals with religious radicalism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He teaches the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a member of the secretariat of A Land for All: Two States. One Homeland movement. Tzidkiyahu is also active in preventing gender-based violence.
