Ben Gvir calls for Abbas’s arrest if UN advances Palestinian state recognition

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Monday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should be placed in solitary confinement and senior PA officials should be targeted for assassination if the UN advances recognition of a Palestinian state, hours before a Security Council vote on a resolution endorsing US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive Gaza plan.

Ben Gvir and other far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have intensified their anti-Palestinian rhetoric as Israel enters an election year, urging him to state unequivocally that Israel will never accept a Palestinian state amid fears that Trump’s ceasefire plan could pave the way for one.

The US president’s proposal lays out a multi-stage process that would hand Gaza over to an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and an apolitical Palestinian administration overseen by a Trump-chaired “Board of Peace.” It says that, if Gaza is demilitarized and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority “faithfully” reforms itself, a path to Palestinian statehood may be possible — a prospect that Ben Gvir and his far-right Otzma Yehudit party firmly oppose.

Speaking at the opening of his party’s faction meeting at the Knesset on Monday, Ben Gvir said, “A ‘Palestinian’ state of the ‘invented people’ who call themselves ‘Palestinian’ must never be established, because the aspiration of those seeking to establish such a state is to build it on the ruins of the State of Israel.”

“If they accelerate recognition of a Palestinian terror state… orders must be given for targeted killings of senior Palestinian Authority officials — who are terrorists in every respect — as well as an order for the arrest of Abbas,” he said. “There is a solitary confinement cell ready for him in Ketziot Prison.”

Ahead of his own Religious Zionism party’s faction meeting, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted that no plan paving the way to a Palestinian state would ever be implemented.

“The plan for a path to a Palestinian state will not happen,” he declared.

“My life’s mission is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land,” the minister said, noting that he has worked hard “to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” and vowing to continue doing so.

Smotrich added that a Palestinian state could be pursued “in any of the dozens of Arab countries, or even in several European countries… not here.”

“This is where the Jewish state was established, and this is where it will continue to exist with full sovereignty,” he continued.

The two ministers have been up in arms since a joint statement arranged by the US was released on Friday, in which multiple countries working toward an end to the Gaza conflict voiced backing for Washington’s Security Council resolution to establish an International Stabilization Force in Gaza, amid pushback from Russia and China.

The statement, supported by Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Turkey, said that the process “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

“We emphasize that this is a sincere effort, and the Plan provides a viable path towards peace and stability, not only between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but for the entire region,” the joint statement continued. “We are looking forward to this resolution’s swift adoption.”

Netanyahu himself welcomed the plan when it was unveiled at the White House in September, but its actual text is less clear regarding the prospect for Palestinian statehood.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich have both previously issued ultimatums to Netanyahu, at times threatening to bring down the government. In October, Ben Gvir said he gave the prime minister a deadline to dismantle Hamas and implement the death penalty for terrorists, warning that his party would quit the coalition if the demands were not met. A month later, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer walked back those claims, stating that the faction was not actively seeking to topple the government.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.