He currently serves as the Minister of Interior, having been appointed a permanent replacement for Aryeh Deri, who was disqualified from holding the offices by the Israeli Supreme Court.

During his national service in the Israel Defense Forces he served in a Home Front Command unit for identifying casualties.

During the term of the nineteenth Knesset (2013–2015), he worked as a legal advisor to the Shas party and for MK Yoav Ben-Tzur.

[4] In 2018 he was appointed temporary head of the Ministry of Religious Services due to the illness of minister David Azulai.

[citation needed] On 19 April 2023, several months after Shas leader Aryeh Deri was disqualified from holding ministerial posts by the Israeli Supreme court, Arbel was appointed Minister of Interior and Minister of Health in the Thirty-seventh government of Israel.