Ben-Gvir .

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Hebrew: אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר [itaˈmaʁ benˈgviʁ]; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of National Security since 2022.He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit, a Kahanist and anti-Arab party that won six seats in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, and is part of what is widely regarded as the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

 

Ben-Gvir is a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, whose "political background lies in Kahanism - a violently racist movement that supports the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands". He has a long history of anti-Arab activism leading to dozens of indictments and at least eight convictions of crimes including incitement to racism and support for, as well as possession of propaganda of, a terrorist organization (the now illegal political party Kach). As a lawyer, he is known for defending Jews accused of Jewish extremist terrorism on trial in Israel.

 

Ben-Gvir is known for being a provocateur and has grabbed headlines for a variety of reasons; threatening Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on live television in 1995 shortly before his assassination, having had a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish extremist terrorist and mass murderer, calling for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to Israel in 2019,[7] inciting violent clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 2021, and for making highly controversial visits to the Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located, in 2023 and 2024.

 

Controversies

On 25 February 2019, Ben-Gvir said that Arab citizens of Israel who were not loyal to Israel "must be expelled".

 

Prior to entering office Ben-Gvir was known to have a portrait in his living room of Israeli-American mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in Hebron, in the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre;[49][50] he removed the portrait in preparation for the 2020 Israeli legislative election in hope of being allowed to run on the unified right list headed by Naftali Bennett.

 

In the context of the Sheikh Jarrah controversy, in May 2021, Ben-Gvir set up a makeshift office in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in a show of solidarity with Jewish settlers. Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have faced potential evictions by Israeli settlers for years. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai placed the blame for the outbreak of violent clashes on Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir dismantled his office and left the neighbourhood after Netanyahu agreed to increase police presence in the neighbourhood during Ramadan.

 

In October 2021, Ben-Gvir and Joint List leader Ayman Odeh had a physical confrontation during a visit to the Kaplan Medical Center to see Miqdad Qawasmeh, a Hamas operative who had been on a hunger strike for over three months of his administrative detention. Ben-Gvir was against Qawasmeh being treated in an Israeli hospital, and stated that he had visited to check the detainee's conditions, as well as to "see up close this miracle that a person remains alive despite not eating for several months". As Ben-Gvir attempted to enter Qawasmeh's room, he accused Odeh of being a terrorist for supporting extremists like Qawasmeh. Odeh then struck first, pushing Ben-Gvir, and the pair began to scuffle before being separated by bystanders.[55] Ben-Gvir later filed a complaint against Odeh, claiming that he had "committed a serious criminal act".

 

In December 2021, Ben-Gvir was investigated after a video surfaced of him pulling a handgun on Arab security guards during a parking dispute in the underground garage of the Expo Tel Aviv conference center. The guards asked Ben-Gvir to move his vehicle as he was parked in a prohibited space. He then drew a pistol and brandished it at the guards.Both parties taunted each other, and Ben-Gvir claimed that he felt his life threatened. The guards were unarmed. He was criticized by lawmakers across the aisle, and the incident was investigated.

 

On 13 October 2022, Ben-Gvir took part in clashes in Sheikh Jarrah between Israeli Jewish settlers and local Palestinian residents whilst brandishing a gun, telling the police to shoot at Palestinians throwing stones at the scene, and yelling at them that "We're the landlords here, remember that, I am your landlord."[60] This was a message he later repeated in a tweet on the morning after the 2022 election in his victory tweet.

 

Ben-Gvir has led several visits to the Temple Mount as an activist and member of Knesset, as well as contentious marches through Jerusalem's Old City Muslim Quarter. On 3 January 2023, he visited the Temple Mount as national security minister, which prompted a wave of international criticism from the United States, European Union, and Arab countries including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who characterised his visit as provocative and called on Israel to respect the status quo of holy sites.On 13 August 2024, he led a group of Jewish worshippers to the compound on the occasion of Tisha B'Av, an annual day of fasting in Judaism. Against convention, several Jews were seen praying and prostrating themselves without being challenged by police who were present. This caused wide outrage in Israel as well as internationally, and resulted in contradictory statements made by prime minister Netanyahu's office and Ben-Gvir himself about whether this indicated a formal change in Israeli policy. At the urging of Jerusalem mayor Moshe Lion, five senior rabbis issued a video statement in Hebrew—with Arabic subtitles—stating that it is strictly forbidden for Jews to enter the compound, and called for calm.

 

On 8 January 2023, Ben-Gvir ordered Israeli police to remove Palestinian flags being flown in public, stating the flags symbolized terrorism.

 

In August 2023 Ben-Gvir stated, "My right, and my wife's and my children's right, to get around on the roads in Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement for Arabs".[65] These comments were condemned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the US State Department as racist. The PA condemned "the racist and heinous remarks by Israel's fascist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, which only confirms Israel's apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy and racial terror against the Palestinian people".

 

In October 2023, following the arrest of five Haredi Jews for spitting at Christians outside churches, Ben-Gvir said it was "not a criminal case" following arrests.[66] He said he thought it should be addressed "through instruction and education", rather than justifying arrest. Prior to entering politics, he defended Jews spitting at Christians as "an ancient Jewish custom".After the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, Ben-Gvir said that "Israel is experiencing one of the most difficult events in its history. This is not the time for questions, tests and investigations."

 

The Arab community in Israel has seen a significant increase in violence and organized crime, including a rise in gang-related murders in recent years. A report by The Abraham Initiatives highlighted that 244 Arab community members were killed in Israel in 2023, more than double the previous year's count. The report attributed this surge in homicides directly to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who campaigned on a platform promising to improve personal security and oversees law enforcement.

 

In November 2023 he declared that "when they say that Hamas needs to be eliminated, it also means those who sing, those who support and those who distribute candy, all of these are terrorists." On 1 January 2024, Ben-Gvir said that the war with Hamas presented an "opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza." He has stated that "We cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing". On the day that a number of European countries recognised a Palestinian state, Ben-Gvir entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and said "We will not allow any surrender that would even include a declaration of a Palestinian state" and that the mosque site belongs "only to the State of Israel".

 

Noted Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz has said Ben-Gvir represents "Jewish fascism".

 

The European Union's foreign policy chief has requested that some Israeli ministers be sanctioned by the 27 member states of the bloc for their 'hate messages' towards Palestinians. He didn't specify the ministers, but recently he's publicly criticized Ben-Gvir and Smotrich for statements he described as 'sinister'.

 

Ben Gvir claimed credit for delaying ceasefire negotiations during Israel-Hamas war.