Arbel was born to Ilana and Rahmim. His father was deputy chairman of the
Petah Tikva religious council and a Shas activist. He was educated at the Sha'arit Yisrael
Talmud Torah and the Nahlat David
yeshiva. During his national service in the
Israel Defense Forces he served in a Home Front Command unit for identifying casualties. He was subsequently ordained as a rabbi, and went on to study law at
Ono Academic College. He was a legal intern at
Ramla court and carried out
reserve duty as a military prosecutor in the
Judea and Samaria office of the
Military Advocate General. Between 2006 and 2013 he was director of the Keter Shalom institute. 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. He was placed on the honorary sixty-fifth place on the Shas list for the
2015 Knesset elections. In 2018 he was appointed temporary head of the
Ministry of Religious Services due to the illness of minister
David Azulai. In the build-up to the
April 2019 Knesset elections he was placed seventh on the Shas list, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won eight seats. Arbel was re-elected in
September 2019,
2020,
2021 and
2022. On 12 October 2023, as part of a cabinet reshuffle caused by the
Gaza war, Arbel was replaced as Minister of Health by
Uriel Buso, remaining only as Minister of Interior. Arbel planned to exit the government in July 2025, though he temporarily withdrew his resignation on 17 July. Arbel submitted his resignation again on 20 July. == Personal life ==