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Itamar Ben-Gvir ( ; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of National Security since 2025. He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit ("Jewish Power"), a Kahanism and anti-Arabism party that won six seats in the 2022 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 in Israeli courts.
Ben-Gvir is known for being a provocateur and has attracted 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 in 2019 for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to the state; inciting violent clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 2021; and making highly controversial visits to the Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located, in 2023 and 2024.
On 18 January 2025, it was reported that Ben-Gvir intended to resign from his ministerial position in response to the approval and implementation of the three-phase Gaza war ceasefire deal. He resigned on 19 January 2025. Two months later, it was announced that he and other party members would return to the government after an agreement was reached, following the continuation of airstrikes in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir continued to be associated with the Kahanism movement; Otzma Yehudit is considered Kach's ideological successor. However, when forming the Otzma Yehudit party, he claimed that it would not be a Kach, Kahane Chai or splinter group. He carried out a series of far-right activities that have resulted in dozens of indictments. In a November 2015 interview, he claimed to have been indicted 53 times. In most cases, the charges were thrown out of court. In 2007, however, he was convicted for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization.*
Ben-Gvir has been convicted of at least eight charges.
In the 1990s, he was active in protests against the Oslo Accords. In 1995, Ben-Gvir came to public attention for the first time, when he appeared on television brandishing a Cadillac hood ornament that had been stolen from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's car, and declared: "We got to his car, and we'll get to him too." Several weeks later, Rabin was assassinated by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir.
As a lawyer, Ben-Gvir has represented a series of far-right Jewish activists suspected of terrorism and hate crimes, some of which are colloquially known as hilltop youth. He has stated that his work representing them is ideologically motivated. Notable clients include Kahanist activist Benzi Gopstein and two teenagers charged in the Duma arson attack, in which three people died, including a 18 month baby. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz described Ben-Gvir as the "go-to man" for Jewish extremists facing legal trouble, and reported that his client list "reads like a 'Who's Who' of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes in Israel". Ben-Gvir has also represented Lehava, a far-right Israeli anti-assimilation organization founded by Gopstein which is active in opposing Jewish intermarriage with non-Jews, and has sued the Jerusalem Waqf.
Ben-Gvir had planned to run for a seat in the Knesset in the 2019 Israeli legislative election in the first slot of a combined Noam/Otzma Yehudit electoral list, though the two parties split over Otzma's inclusion of a secular candidate on the combined list (which Noam disagreed with). Ben-Gvir was in the third seat of a joint list that included Otzma Yehudit, Noam and the Religious Zionist Party that ran in the 2021 Israeli legislative election. He was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won six seats.
In the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Otzma Yehudit again ran as part of a combined list with the Religious Zionist Party, led by Bezalel Smotrich. This combined list was strongly encouraged by Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly posted a video address warning against the parties running independently and risking falling below the 3.25% electoral threshold needed to get a seat. The prospect of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich entering government was highly controversial. Yaakov Katz, the then editor of The Jerusalem Post, warned that such a government would work "toward the same goal of destroying Israeli democracy." The combined list received the 3rd most votes in the 25th Knesset, a total of 14 seats out of 120. Ben-Gvir and his party entered a Netanyahu-led government. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog was heard on a hot mic saying that the entire world was worried about Ben-Gvir becoming a minister. It was reported in late November 2022 that Ben-Gvir would head the newly created National Security Ministry, whose duties would include overseeing the Israel Border Police in the West Bank.
In January 2022, his level of security was increased. Due to frequent death threats, Ben-Gvir is accompanied by multiple security guards in public, and extra security measures are taken to ensure his safety.
As minister, Ben-Gvir worked to loosen Israel's firearm-ownership regulations. and requested the creation of the National Guard of Israel.
On 26 January 2024 he accused the International Court of Justice of antisemitism following its ruling on the case South Africa v. Israel. He was the subject of a foiled Assassination by seven Arab citizens of Israel and four Palestinians from the West Bank in 2024.
After the Israeli military police in July 2024 visited Sde Teiman detention camp to detain nine Israeli soldiers suspected of aggravated abuse and forcible sodomy of a Palestinian prisoner, Ben-Gvir condemned the prosecution of the soldiers as "shameful", calling for "the military authorities to back the fighters … Soldiers need to have our full support".
Various reports indicate that, since the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel mistreatment has become an integral part of Israel's detention of Palestinian prisoners in Israel which is under Ben-Gvir.
On 16 January 2025, Ben-Gvir held a press conference in which he announced his intention to resign as minister and withdraw Otzma Yehudit from the coalition if the government accepted the three-phase ceasefire proposal. The proposal was accepted, and Ben-Gvir subsequently resigned alongside his party's ministers when the ceasefire went into effect on 19 January 2025. His term expired on 21 January. Otzma Yehudit has stated its intention to rejoin the governing coalition if the deal does not result in a permanent ceasefire. His party announced their intention to return to the government on 18 March 2025. The cabinet approved Ben-Gvir's reappointment that night and it was approved by the Knesset the following day.
On 10 June 2025, the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway announced that they would impose Travel ban and freeze Ben-Gvir's assets alongside Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of inciting settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The decision was criticized by the two ministers and the United States. He was also sanctioned by the Slovenian government on 17 July 2025.
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; 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. 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." This was a message he later repeated in a tweet on the morning after the 2022 election in his victory Twitter.
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 May 2023 the European Union cancelled its diplomatic event for Europe Day in Israel because of the planned participation of Ben-Gvir. It was also reported that, since Netanyahu's 2022 government took power, "official representatives of many European countries - which have strong relations with Israel - have refused to meet Mr Ben-Gvir and his fellow ultranationalist, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich."
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". 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 Judaism Jews for spitting at Christians outside churches, Ben-Gvir said it was "not a criminal case" following arrests. 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, Josep Borrell, 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 Bezalel Smotrich for statements he described as 'sinister'.
Ben-Gvir claimed credit for delaying ceasefire negotiations during Israel-Hamas war.
Ben-Gvir sued his father's caregiver, a foreign worker from Sri Lanka, for 100,000 NIS after he asked for severance pay from him and his brother, after Ben-Gvir's father died. Ben-Gvir's claim was that his father died because the worker went on a vacation. The court ruled that Ben-Gvir and his brother would have to pay the foreign worker around 100,000 NIS as their father's heirs.
In May 2025, Ben-Gvir and his wife were attacked by anti-Zionist Haredi Judaism of the Neturei Karta while they were visiting in Beit Shemesh when he called on the police to report Palestinian flags painted on the side of a building.
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