Ben Gvir refuses to send senior cop to Gallant’s discussion on ‘settler violence’
In latest tiff, far-right minister accuses defense minister of folding to leftist pressure; Gallant slams ‘lie,’ says discussion is of nationalistic crime in general
Escalating an ongoing tiff with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir refused Saturday to send a senior police commander to a planned discussion on settler violence in the West Bank, several Hebrew media reports said Saturday, citing apparent leaks from the far-right Ben Gvir’s office.
Gallant was set to hold a meeting Monday on “settler violence in Judea and Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank — Israel National News and the Kan public broadcaster reported. The defense minister’s office denied that this was the topic of the meeting, saying it dealt in general with nationalistically-motivated crime.
Gallant reportedly asked Ben Gvir to send the Israel Police’s top commander in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Uzi Levy, to the meeting.
Ben Gvir refused, the reports said, citing criticism of Gallant by associates of the Otzma Yehudit party chief.
They said holding such a meeting during a wave of Palestinian terror attacks was “exaggerated and disproportionate,” and claimed that Gallant only sends lower-ranked military officers to discussions of Palestinian terrorism.
“It cannot be that in discussions about Arab terror, Gallant sends a representative ranked major, and that Gallant is asking to send a major general to a discussion that is being held solely due to pressure from the left,” they were quoted as saying.
Ben Gvir reportedly offered to send his chief of staff, former settler extremist Chanamel Dorfman. Gallant didn’t respond to that.
Gallant’s office panned Ben Gvir in response to Ben Gvir’s apparent leak.
“The claim that the discussion is of ‘settler violence’ is a complete lie. This is a discussion of ways for the security establishment to deal with nationalistically-motivated crime,” it said.
Gallant’s office added that it “regrets that Minister Ben Gvir is harming the efforts to defeat the extremist violence” in the West Bank.
Gallant, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has repeatedly sparred with Ben Gvir since the current government was formed.
The latest example was earlier this week, when the two reportedly traded barbs during the cabinet meeting over Ben Gvir’s demand to have his ministry granted the right to issue administrative detention orders, which allows a suspect to be held without formally filing charges. Currently, only the defense minister has the power, used mainly in national security cases, but Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police, wants to expand the measure to be used in the battle against an ongoing deadly crime wave in the Arab community.
During the argument, Ben Gvir, a former terror convict, boasted to Gallant of his personal experience with administrative detention, according to Channel 12 news.
“I know [the matter] 1,000 times better than you, I was subject to administrative detention,” he reportedly said.
Ben Gvir has a long history of arrests and convictions for far-right activity, including incitement and support of a terror group. He was considered such a security risk as a teenager that the IDF refused to allow him to enlist in the military.
Gallant reportedly retorted: “The fact that you made a career out of actions like this, and it brought you to the Knesset, doesn’t make you an expert in administrative detentions.”
Since the beginning of this year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 25 people.
According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 154 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that time — most of them during clashes with security forces or while carrying out attacks, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances.
There have also been many attacks on Palestinians by settler extremists, including two separate rampages on Huwara that caused heavy damage, following terror attacks emanating from the Palestinian town.
