Israel: Far-right minister threatens to dismantle government

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on October 9th that his party would topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, according to the Middle East Eye via Reuters.

“If the Hamas government is not dismantled, or if they only tell us that it is dismantled while in reality it continues to exist under a different guise – Jewish Power will dismantle the government,” said Ben-Gvir in a statement ahead of Netanyahu’s cabinet meeting to okay the ceasefire deal.

Ben-Gvir is the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) political party, and the threat to dismantle Netanyahu’s government seems to be related to the Israeli government’s meeting to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Netanyahu has previously been urged by Ben-Gvir and other far-right politicians to reject a Gaza ceasefire deal, with Ben-Gvir saying, “I say to the prime minister: you have no mandate to go for a partial deal and not decisively defeat Hamas.”

Notably, Ben-Gvir has condemned Gaza ceasefire efforts, claiming that they would only embolden Hamas and that his nation should not be “negotiating with a murderous terrorist” group.

The minister had previously left Netanyahu’s government in January over the announcement of a ceasefire with Hamas, only to announce his return to the role of National Security Minister on March 18th.

On August 14th, footage emerged of Ben-Gvir threatening a Palestinian prisoner, saying that Israel would “obliterate” any opponents; he warned the prisoner, “Whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women, we will obliterate them. You will not defeat us.”

It was reported on September 8th that Ben-Gvir objected to an Israeli Supreme Court ruling which found that Palestinian security prisoners were being denied basic nutrition in Israeli jails.

He insisted that Israeli authorities should continue the policy of only providing the legal minimum amount of nutrition, despite growing concerns about the inhumane treatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention.

Ben-Gvir’s contempt for Palestinian life has been so well documented that it was reported on June 11th that several nations, including the UK, imposed sanctions on Ben-Gvir over his “repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians.” The sanctions, which also applied to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, consisted of travel bans and asset freezes.

On October 8th, Ben-Gvir led the storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem, which saw 1,300 Israelis in the incursion. The incursion violated the mosque’s status quo as an exclusively Islamic site.

The raid on the mosque, which occurred during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, is part of a pattern of escalating Israeli hostility against Palestinians in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem; Reportedly, the aim is to increase Jewish presence in the area, which will force Palestinians to leave.

Middle East Eye via Reuters, Maghrebi.org