The three women entered an Israeli synagogue and dropped leaflets advocating an agreement for the release of hostages from Gaza. Police arrested him, handcuffed him and charged him with trespassing before being released.
A week earlier, a 27-year-old woman was locked up for 24 hours for throwing sand at Israel’s national security minister, Itamar. ben gvirDuring a sudden protest on a beach in Tel Aviv. Protesters gathered at the detention center where he was being held.
At different times, the events of the past month may not be echoed. But they fueled growing anger in Israel about the prime minister’s opponents benjamin netanyahu And his allies say it’s a worrying trend: a crackdown on dissent by a government that is the most nationalistic and religious in the country’s history, and now waging a sweeping war against Iran-backed Islamic militants.
At the center is West Bank resident Ben Gvir, who helps set the ideological tone and has played a major role in prolonging the years-long conflict in Gaza, which has strained relations between Israel and its Western allies . He said Israel should crush Hezbollah this week after the country sent ground troops into Lebanon, prompting a barrage of missiles from Iran in retaliation.
Ben Gvir, along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right political ally, were at the forefront of the judicial overhaul that deeply divided Israel and sparked mass protests before the war began a year ago.
They are now the leading hawks who are reluctant to accept any peace deal in Gaza unless the Hamas terrorist group is destroyed, calling for Israel to resume control over the enclave and tighten its grip on the West Bank. Are putting pressure.
As security chief, Ben Gvir toughened conditions for Palestinian prisoners, made it easier for Israelis to obtain guns and replaced top law enforcement officials with allies to assert statehood.
He has also advocated for the rights of Jewish settlers in the occupied territories and is pushing to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, which the Israeli government has banned since 1967 to limit friction.
“Prisons in Israel were a summer camp – I changed it and I’m proud of it,” Ben Gvir said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. He also talked about visiting the site of a terrorist attack where a man shot dead a knife-wielding attacker. “He said to me ‘I got my weapon through Ben Gvir Reform. While I was considering whether to pull the trigger, I remembered you were in the office and I shot.’ I was very proud,” he said.
While Ben Gvir’s own government allies and the Shin Bet security service have blamed him for escalating tensions, opinion polls show he maintains his popularity, while Israel’s efforts to weaken Hamas and Hezbollah receive widespread support. Both have been designated as terrorist organizations by Israel and the US. And many of his associates.
Ben Gvir, 48, and Smotrich, 44, swept to power after their parties were jointly elected to win 14 seats in parliament in 2022. This made him key to Netanyahu’s political survival.
This was his only chance to form a coalition that could win a majority in the legislature after other parties refused to negotiate with him following his conviction for fraud and bribery.
Just two years after Netanyahu said in a TV interview that he was not suitable to serve in the government, Ben Gvir asked to be put in charge of the Homeland Security office. Smotrich was handed the keys to the Finance Ministry and given oversight of all civil aspects of the West Bank settlements. Both were given seats in the cabinet that decides Israel’s security policy.
In recent months he has been in the news for allegedly thwarting a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and bringing Israeli hostages home in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
He threatened that the government would fall if Palestinians accused of killing Israelis were released and expressed strong objection to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Ben Gvir had previously threatened to leave the coalition if a permanent ceasefire was reached with Hezbollah.
The recent return of veteran lawmaker Gideon Saar to the cabinet, along with his party’s support, has diminished his ability to hold Netanyahu to task. But Ben Gvir’s influence over domestic security forces remains a concern for critics because of his sweeping police surveillance powers.
“Israel is less a democracy today than it was two years ago when the government came to power,” said Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, professor emeritus of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Basic rights such as freedom of expression have been significantly harmed.”
Ben Gvir began by ordering the arrest of protesters who rioted and blocked roads in demonstrations against judicial reform aimed at weakening the courts. Those protests halted after an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 and have now been replaced by protests demanding the immediate repatriation of the hostages and the holding of elections.
Former police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, revealed that Ben Gvir tried to prevent police from securing humanitarian aid convoys en route to Gaza, breaking the chain of command. Two months later, Shabtai attacked Ben Gvir in his retirement speech for heavily politicizing the police, warning that it was “on the path to losing public legitimacy and even its right to exist.”
Ben Gvir’s office declined to comment for this story, which he told Bloomberg in a July interview. Meanwhile, Israeli police say that freedom of protest and speech is not the same as freedom to set fires, block roads and break down security barriers.
Danny Levy, the new police commissioner chosen for the post by Ben Gvir, said at his swearing-in ceremony in late August that governance and sovereignty are paramount. “We will fight anyone who tries to harm government authority,” he said.
Ben Gvir himself is no stranger to the hands of power. An activist since the age of 16, he grew up on the ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the American-born founder of a radical group called Kach, who wanted all Arabs to leave Israel. He said he was excluded from mandatory military service, which was outlawed in the 1990s, because of his ties to Kach.
Over the years, Ben Gvir was found guilty on several occasions of ideology-driven crimes, including support and possession of propaganda for a Jewish terrorist organization, incitement to racism, obstruction of a police officer, rioting and vandalism. .
As a key member of Netanyahu’s government, it is his support for West Bank residents and access to the Temple Mount that is now raising concerns.
Ben Gvir is promoting a change to the status quo that would allow Jews to pray on the mountain, an act that has been prohibited since Israel conquered the site in 1967. His plans have been rejected by Netanyahu, while Defense Minister Yoav Galant described Ben Gvir as a “firework trying to set fire to the Middle East.”
Meanwhile, many gun licenses – 150,000 in six months compared with 8,000 during the previous year – were issued to rapid response teams, small groups of civilians trained to provide initial defense in case of attack e.g. That the attack was carried out by Hamas on October 7. Ben Gvir claimed to have increased their numbers from 70 to 900.
Some are in the West Bank, where there has been a sharp change in mood over the past two years, according to Professor Dan Turner, who lives in the Ma’ale-Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem. He attributed this to discrimination based on “the influential spirit of Ben Gvir and Smotrich”.
“The reality on the ground is one of completely selective law enforcement and it has definitely gotten worse since the government came to power,” said Turner, a local activist for Palestinian rights.
Nadav Argaman, the former head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, said in a recent television interview that Israel is “slowly losing itself as a democracy.”
In response, police said officers have been working day and night to protect Israel in all districts, including the West Bank, since the October 7 Hamas attack, where they work shoulder to shoulder with Shin Bet to arrest Palestinian terrorists. Working shoulder to shoulder with.
Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have been publicly rebuked by US officials, including President Joe BidenWho said in an interview that if Israel “retains its incredibly conservative government – Ben Gvir and others – they will lose support around the world.” According to news website Axios, sanctions against both ministers were discussed in the White House, but Biden rejected the proposal.
“I’m personally not bothered by the idea of sanctions,” Ben Gvir, who publicly supported Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, said in an interview with Bloomberg in July. “However, Israel must ask: Is this any way to treat an ally?”
