{"id":125162,"date":"2026-05-21T19:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/125162\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:42:28","slug":"israels-national-security-minister-has-a-record-of-extreme-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/125162\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s national security minister has a record of extreme actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM \u2014 Israel’s far-right national security minister has a long history as a provocateur. This week, Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked global outrage after promoting a video of himself taunting activists from a flotilla to Gaza<\/a> who were detained by his police force.<\/p>\n

Denied entry into the military as a teenager because of his extreme views, the 50-year-old Ben-Gvir nevertheless rose to become one of the most powerful people in the country after operating for decades within its far-right fringes.<\/p>\n

His tactics drew a backlash this week, as foreign leaders \u2014 and even coalition partner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> \u2014 condemned his on-camera treatment of some 430 detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla.<\/p>\n

In one clip, Ben-Gvir is seen waving a large Israeli flag over hunched-over detainees whose hands appear to be bound. In another, he taunts a kneeling detainee whose wrists are zip-tied, yelling \u201cAm Yisrael Chai\u201d at him \u2014 Hebrew for \u201cThe nation of Israel lives.\u201d In another, the detainees can be seen \u2014 foreheads to the floor of an outdoor pen \u2014 as the Israeli national anthem plays and armed guards encircle them.<\/p>\n

Here is a closer look at Ben-Gvir:<\/p>\n

An outlaw youth<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offenses that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

The army banned him from compulsory military service when he was a teen, deeming his views too extreme.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir gained notoriety in his youth as a follower of the late radical rabbi Meir Kahane<\/a>. He first became a national figure<\/a> when he broke a hood ornament off then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car in 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to his car, and we\u2019ll get to him too,\u201d he said, just weeks before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Ben-Gvir took responsibility for orchestrating a campaign of protests, including death threats, that forced Irish singer Sinead O’Connor to cancel a concert for peace<\/a> in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Moving to the mainstream<\/p>\n

The political rise of Ben-Gvir<\/a> was the culmination of years of efforts by the media-savvy lawmaker to gain legitimacy. But it also reflected a rightward shift in the Israeli electorate that brought his religious, ultranationalist ideology into the mainstream and diminished hopes for Palestinian independence.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir is trained as a lawyer and gained recognition as a successful defense attorney for extremist Jews accused of violence against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

With a quick wit and cheerful demeanor, Ben-Gvir also became a popular fixture in the media, paving his way to enter politics. He was first elected to parliament in 2021.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir has called for deporting his political opponents. In an episode in 2022, he brandished a pistol and encouraged police to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood.<\/p>\n

In his Cabinet post, Ben-Gvir oversaw the country\u2019s police force. He used his influence to encourage Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and recently boasted that he had blocked past efforts to reach a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

As national security minister, he has encouraged police to take a tough line against anti-government protesters.<\/p>\n

Controversial minister<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir, who lives in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank, secured his Cabinet post after 2022 elections that put Netanyahu and his far-right partners, including Ben-Gvir\u2019s Jewish Power party, into power.<\/p>\n

“Over the last year I’ve been on a mission to save Israel,” Ben-Gvir told reporters<\/a> before that election. “Millions of citizens are waiting for a real right-wing government. The time has come to give them one.”<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir has been a magnet of controversy throughout his tenure \u2014 encouraging the mass distribution of handguns to Jewish citizens, backing Netanyahu\u2019s contentious attempt to overhaul the country\u2019s legal system and frequently lashing out at U.S. leaders for perceived slights against Israel.<\/p>\n

He oversees the nation’s police force, prison service and border police units that operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

During the war in Gaza, which began after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, Ben-Gvir repeatedly advocated against the entry of humanitarian aid into the territory, even as experts warned of brewing famine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, he was one of two Israeli ministers sanctioned by Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway for allegedly “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/a> T he Netherlands<\/a> has banned Ben-Gvir from entering the country.<\/p>\n

He recently celebrated in Israel’s parliament after the body approved the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a bill he spearheaded.<\/p>\n

Resignation and return to Netanyahu’s cabinet<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir temporarily resigned<\/a> from Netanyahu’s Cabinet last year to express his disapproval of the Gaza ceasefire deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That ceasefire ran from Jan. 19 to March 1. Ben-Gvir’s resignation did not stop the ceasefire, but it did weaken Netanyahu\u2019s governing coalition.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir rejoined the Cabinet when Israel ended the ceasefire<\/a> and returned to active combat in Gaza in March 2025. He remained in Netanyahu’s Cabinet through the current Gaza ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM \u2014 Israel’s far-right national security minister has a long history as a provocateur. This week, Itamar Ben-Gvir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2371,1414,42368,2122,1303,197,1829,37,768,1686,13117,81,1597,463,30047,200,82],"class_list":["post-125162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-activism","tag-bengvir-flotilla-gaza","tag-border-security","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-international-agreements","tag-israel","tag-military-and-defense","tag-national-security","tag-political-violence","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-religion","tag-teens","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116614276206188682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}