Itamar Ben-Gvir | |
---|---|
אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר | |
![]() Ben-Gvir in 2022 | |
Minister of National Security | |
Assumed office 29 December 2022 | |
Faction represented in the Knesset | |
2021–2022 | Religious Zionist Party |
2022– | Otzma Yehudit |
Personal details | |
Born | Mevaseret Zion, Israel | 6 May 1976
Political party | Otzma Yehudit |
Spouse | Ayala Nimrodi |
Children | 6[1] |
Education | Ono Academic College |
Signature | ![]() |
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.[2][3] 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.[4][5][6][7]
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".[8] 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, possession of propaganda for a terrorist organization (the now illegal political party Kach) and support for a terrorist organisation (also Kach).[9] As a lawyer, he is known for defending Jews accused of Jewish extremist terrorism on trial in Israel.[10]
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 (Rabin was assassinated shortly after that), 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.[11]
TOI
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).