Ben Gvir says he promotes cops only if they implement his policy, in dig at AG

Far-right minister says he expects police to follow an approach that includes ‘compassion toward right-wing activists’ and razing ‘entire villages’ of Bedouins in the Negev

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (second left) is flanked by senior law enforcement officers during a visit to a prison in central Israel where high-risk terrorists are detained, January 8, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (second left) is flanked by senior law enforcement officers during a visit to a prison in central Israel where high-risk terrorists are detained, January 8, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told a national religious weekend newsletter that he offers promotions to police officers only if he is convinced they will implement his policies, including “compassion for right-wing activists” and the destruction of “entire villages” illegally built by Bedouins on state land in the Negev.

Though Ben Gvir added that he doesn’t hand down operational orders — a disputed claim — the comment appeared to fly in the face of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s repeated warning that the minister not meddle in police work.

Ben Gvir has demanded Baharav-Miara’s ouster, signaling he would topple the government if it failed to fire her. In the weekend interview, Ben Gvir denounced the investigation she had launched into senior West Bank police officer Avishai Mualem, who is suspected of papering over cases of settler violence to curry Ben Gvir’s favor.

Speaking to the Matzav HaRuach newsletter, Ben Gvir said: “I certainly admit that I look for officers who implement my policy… it’s what I was elected to do.”

Matzav HaRuach is a popular example of the Shabbat newsletter genre, which plays an outsize role in national religious community media. Such newsletters, which typically combine musings on the weekly Torah portion and news-related articles, are distributed at Orthodox synagogues ahead of the Jewish sabbath, when the use of electronic devices are forbidden by Jewish law.

Much of the interview was devoted to Ben Gvir’s vote against the government on a crucial spending bill on December 31, which forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the hospital, where he was recovering from surgery, to cast his vote in the Knesset to make sure the legislation passed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (right) in the Knesset on December 31, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg / Flash 90)

Ben Gvir said the move had been a mistake, and repeated the apology he has offered publicly to Netanyahu and another coalition member forced to attend the vote days after his mother died. The minister said he had apologized publicly to both men.

However, Ben Gvir added, he stood by the rationale for the move, which he said was to protest cuts to his office’s budget for police officers’ salaries and civilian defense teams.

He said the only way to get what he wants is to “bang on the table,” offering, as examples, his entry into the narrow security cabinet over Netanyahu’s initial reluctance, and the current campaign against the attorney general.

Ben Gvir suggested Baharav-Miara was trying to oust him because she opposed his handing out weapons, beefing up civilian defense teams, changing out the police’s top brass and ending the “summer-camp conditions” in prisons.

He also cast the investigation against Mualem as politically motivated.

“What is their argument? What is their claim against him?” asked Ben Gvir. “That he implements my policy and shows compassion toward right-wing activists.”

Muallem is suspected to have repeatedly faked probes into Jewish nationalist attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, creating the appearance of a thorough investigation while letting perpetrators go unpunished.

Senior West Bank police officer Avishai Mualem arrives for a court hearing at the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem on December 2, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Influence over police

Ben Gvir touted his influence over personnel changes, saying he speaks to everyone from the commissioner through superintendents down to station chiefs.

“I tell you in the bluntest way,” he said. “Every officer who comes to me, I make sure to check if he’ll implement my policy.”

However, Ben Gvir dismissed Baharav-Miara’s  accusations that he had inappropriately handed down operational directives to police.

“I don’t say to them, ‘Go arrest this guy, go arrest that guy, go do this operation, that operation. Heaven forbid” he said.

“By the way, it’s said that the previous minister did exactly that,” he added, without citing a source, about former public security minister Omer Barlev.

Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara attends the funeral of former Judge Elisheva Barak-Ussoskin at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv, December 11, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Haaretz newspaper  noted that, contrary to Ben Gvir’s comment, he has tweeted about directing police to clamp down on protests against the war in Gaza, and his reported correspondence has shown him ordering raids on Arab homes in East Jerusalem and seeking the use of police force against anti-government protesters.

It has also been reported that Ben Gvir ordered police not to guard humanitarian aid trucks en route to Gaza despite repeated attacks by far-right activists.

Ben Gvir, who has overseen a sharp rise in demolitions of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, reportedly also ordered the demolition of Umm al-Hiran over the opposition of the Shin Bet and governmental Bedouin Authority.

“Nobody touched the illegal construction” before Ben Gvir assumed office, he said. “My policy is to demolish… homes, entire villages.”

“A few weeks ago we demolished an entire village,” he added, apparently referring to Umm al-Hiran.

Police demolish a mosque in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev on November 14, 2024 (The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev)

In lieu of hostage deal, ‘encourage voluntary emigration’

Ben Gvir has threatened to topple the government should it agree to a hostage deal that would end the war in Gaza.

“I don’t know anyone that doesn’t want to bring them home,” he said. “It’s what the heart desires. The disagreement is on the way [to do so].”

To bring the captives home, Ben Gvir said, Israel should stop the supply of gas and humanitarian aid to Gaza until Hamas brings back the hostages. While a few hostages’ relatives have expressed support for the move, others have argued that this would freeze and starve their loved ones.

Cutting off humanitarian aid would also put Israel sharply at odds with the United States and other allies and harm Israel’s arguments before the International Criminal Court where it has been accused of war crimes and genocide in Gaza.

Police clash with protesters during a demonstration calling for the release of hostages held captive in Gaza in Tel Aviv on January 4, 2025. (Jack Guez / AFP)

Ben Gvir said the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump could be convinced to stop the flow of aid to Gaza, but conceded that the Trump White House be less open to “encouraging voluntary emigration” of Gazans.

However, the idea has appeared to grow on Netanyahu, Ben Gvir said. “The prime minister used to be against it, but now I see more and more willingness and openness from him.”

Addressing the fact that such expulsion would be a war crime, Ben Gvir added: “I’m speaking to international law: let’s do it willfully.”

“There are people in Gaza who claim they’re suffering, there are people who claim they’re miserable,” said Ben Gvir. “Six percent of Gaza’s population — I saw it this week in some survey — has already emigrated.”

A picture taken during a tour organized by the IDF shows a Palestinian worker unloading humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip from a truck near the Kerem Shalom crossing on November 28, 2024 (Jack Guez / AFP)

The survey Ben Gvir alluded to appeared to be the year-end report recently released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

The report said Gaza’s population has shrunk by 6% since the war there was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

The Foreign Ministry has called the PCBS figure “fabricated, inflated, and manipulated in order to vilify Israel.”

The PA’s figure, which could not be independently verified, does not distinguish between emigres and dead.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting in Gaza. The toll, which cannot be verified, does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.

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