Netanyahu vows senior post for Ben-Gvir if reelected
As Israel approaches a razor-thin election on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to give National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir a senior government position if reelected, cementing an alliance with the country’s most prominent far-right political figure, according to npr.org reports.
How Ben-Gvir Rose From the Political Margins to Power
Itamar Ben-Gvir was once considered an absolute fringe figure in Israeli politics. Two decades ago, he earned a criminal conviction for supporting Kach, an extremist political party that was outlawed under Israeli anti-terrorism laws. Yossi Mekelberg of the Chatham House think tank noted to npr.org that Ben-Gvir was initially treated as a mere political anecdote.
That trajectory shifted entirely due to Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal troubles. Because numerous mainstream politicians refused to share power with a prime minister currently on trial for corruption, Netanyahu relied on extreme right-wing factions to assemble a governing coalition. Mekelberg observed in the reports that Ben-Gvir attained immense national power through the historical accident of Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Hardline Policies on Prisoners and Civilian Armament
During his tenure as national security minister over the past few years of war, Ben-Gvir actively shaped severe domestic policies. At a Tel Aviv campaign stop for English-speaking immigrants, he detailed how he drastically reduced food rations for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. He used a simultaneous translator to tell the crowd that prisoners used to enter jail skinny and leave fat, but now enter fat and leave skinny. He recounted blocking an official proposal to add lemons to prisoner meals, arguing that lemon juice would make the food taste better.
Noa Sattath of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel criticized the minister’s focus during wartime, telling npr.org that her organization argued in court that prisoners were being subjected to starvation and torture until the Supreme Court ultimately overturned the policy. Sattath characterized the actions as exemplifying a profound level of brutality and cruelty.
Ben-Gvir also wears a lapel pin shaped like a noose to celebrate his legislative push for the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis. He relaxed national gun laws, which doubled the volume of issued firearm licenses for Israeli civilians. A rally attendee named Zion told npr.org that he was deeply grateful for the change, explaining that he never finished his mandatory army service and could not previously obtain a weapon permit until Ben-Gvir made it possible.
International Friction and the Campaign Ahead
Mekelberg stated to npr.org that Ben-Gvir helped dictate uncompromising government policies that prolonged the Gaza conflict and emboldened extremist Israeli settlers throughout the occupied West Bank. The minister frequently emerged as the public face of the state in international media coverage.
This friction boiled over in the spring when Ben-Gvir published videos of himself taunting international activists who were arrested while sailing toward Gaza. Governments in Italy and France lodged formal objections, and Netanyahu publicly stated that Ben-Gvir’s conduct did not align with official Israeli values.
Despite past international backlash, Netanyahu is now actively working to secure far-right voter turnout in the razor-thin race. With Tuesday’s vote determining whether his government survives, the prime minister has promised to place Ben-Gvir in a senior position in his government once again, leaving the future trajectory of Israeli security policy directly tied to its most uncompromising political actor.