Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Escalating Rhetoric and Actions Against Palestinians

Since becoming Israel’s minister of national security and leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir has repeatedly issued incendiary remarks and staged provocative media. In early September he posted an AI-generated video on X showing Palestinian detainees on a conveyor belt into a “detention camp” with the caption “we promised – we delivered!” The clip was later deleted but remains online. Earlier proposals included installing crocodiles in prison moats, a plan he abandoned after Israeli rights groups called it cruel to the animals. Ben-Gvir also publicised a gallows complex for Palestinians convicted of terror offences and celebrated the display with a noose-themed birthday cake in June. He called for the full occupation of Gaza and, accompanied by extremist settlers, entered the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem, an act that contravenes the status-quo agreement granting Muslims exclusive worship rights there.

The Guardian

Ben-Gvir, a former activist turned cabinet minister, first attracted international attention when he filmed himself taunting humanitarian activists detained while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. He oversees the administration of Palestinian prisoners, many held under “administrative detention” – a system that allows indefinite confinement without trial on classified evidence, according to the Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem. B’Tselem has described the facilities where Palestinians are kept as “torture camps.” The minister has also championed a death-penalty law that, by its wording, applies exclusively to Palestinians.

The Guardian

Israeli journalist Amira Hass, writing in Haaretz, argued that Israeli policy is deliberately making life “unbearable for Palestinians” to encourage emigration, describing a broader infrastructure of dehumanisation that could lead to mass expulsion and slaughter.

The Guardian

• “We are in charge here in Jerusalem and all of the land of Israel.” — Itamar Ben-Gvir

The Guardian