Who is Israel's Ben Gavir?

 

Minister of National Security. As the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, he is a crucial coalition partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. He holds substantial control over Israel’s domestic security apparatus, directly overseeing the national police force and the prison system. [1, 2, 3]

Ben-Gvir has transitioned from a radical fringe activist into one of the most powerful and polarizing political figures in modern Israel. [1]

Political Ideology and Background

• Kahanist Roots: Ben-Gvir is an acolyte of the late Meir Kahane, an extremist rabbi whose movement advocated for the forced expulsion of Palestinians and Jewish supremacy. [1, 2]
• Criminal Record: Before entering the Knesset (parliament), Ben-Gvir faced dozens of charges. He was convicted multiple times for inciting racism and supporting a Jewish terrorist organization. [1, 2, 3]
• Early Radicalism: He first gained national notoriety in 1995 when he stole a Cadillac emblem from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's car, declaring on television, "We got to his car, and we’ll get to him". Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist weeks later. [1]
• Legal Career: As a defense lawyer prior to his political career, he specialized in representing Jewish extremists accused of politically motivated violence and terrorism against Palestinians. [1]

Role as National Security Minister

• Authority Limits: While he has no operational control over the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or military strategy, he wields enormous domestic authority. [1, 2]
• Prison Services: He manages the incarceration of thousands of Palestinian detainees. He has repeatedly boasted of rolling back food rations for prisoners, culminating in a 2025 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that his directives deprived inmates of a minimum subsistence diet. [1, 2]
• Temple Mount Disputations: Ben-Gvir frequently conducts high-profile, provocative visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (known to Jews as the Temple Mount) in East Jerusalem to push for absolute Israeli sovereignty, sparking widespread international and domestic backlash. [1, 2]

Did he advocate killing multiple Palestinians daily?

Yes, Itamar Ben-Gvir explicitly advocated for the killing of 30 to 40 people in Gaza every night. [1]

The comments surfaced in mid-August 2026 during a recorded podcast interview with Rom Braslavski, a former Israeli hostage. Ben-Gvir used the platform to openly criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for scaling back military strikes under a U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Specific Comments

The Directive: Ben-Gvir stated that Israel should carry out targeted assassinations to "take down 30 to 40 every night". [1]

No Immediate Threat Required: He clarified that these nightly killings should not be restricted to active combatants, saying operations should target people beyond "those who pose a danger... at that particular moment". [1]

Dehumanizing Language: He defended his stance by stating, "There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people". [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Context and Strategic Motive

Ben-Gvir explained that enacting a nightly quota of killings would serve a broader strategic goal: making life so intolerable that it would "encourage" the remaining civilian population to permanently evacuate the territory. This aligns with his long-standing, public objective to achieve the total civilian displacement of Palestinians from Gaza so the territory can be permanently resettled by Israeli colonists. [1, 2]

The remarks sparked immediate widespread international condemnation from human rights organizations and foreign governments. Legal experts quickly pointed out that publicly calling for the systematic execution of individuals who pose no immediate military threat constitutes an explicit admission of intent to commit war crimes. [1, 2, 3]