Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Thursday, May 15, 2025

Anti-Zionist Haredi extremists clash with Ben Gvir in Beit Shemesh, one arrested

By Sam Sokol 15 May 2025, 1:53 pm 2 Edit

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is seen in Beit Shemesh along with several bodyguards, one of whom appears to be sticking his tongue out in the direction of the photographer, on May 15, 2025. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is seen in Beit Shemesh along with several bodyguards, one of whom appears to be sticking his tongue out in the direction of the photographer, on May 15, 2025. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

At least one person has been arrested after Haredi extremists confronted National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his wife Ayala in Beit Shemesh.

According to police, “rioters” surrounded Ben Gvir’s car in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet neighborhood, attempting to damage his vehicle and injuring the minister’s wife, “compelling officers to use force to repel” the attackers.

In a statement, Ben Gvir says that he and his wife came under attack by members of the extreme anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect after they parked in the Haredi neighborhood and called the police to report Palestinian flags painted on the side of a building.

According to Ben Gvir’s spokesperson, the extremists screamed anti-enlistment slogans and tried to attack the minister, whom they called a “Zionist” and “murderer,” when his wife Ayala was “violently attacked by a Neturei Karta activist who slapped her” — prompting the minister to pledge that “the police will enforce the law here too.”

“Ayala defended herself and slapped her back,” the spokesman states, adding that police used “stun grenades, batons and other means to take control of the extremist Neturei Karta who were waving PLO flags.”

In a video Ben Gvir recorded at the scene, Haredim can be heard screaming while he stated that it was a “shame and a disgrace” that such flags are painted on walls in an Israeli neighborhood. Beit Shemesh will not become an “extraterritorial” domain outside the bounds of the law, he declares.

Additional videos published by local outlet Beit Shemesh Hadashot, shows the minister walking back and forth in the street accompanied by police, as a crowd of Haredim hurling insults gather nearby. Ben Gvir can be seen yelling at the demonstrators.

Video also shows the offending graffiti being painted over while local residents jeered.

One clip from the scene showed guards attempting to get Ben Gvir back into his car before the minister slipped past them, running and waving his arms as he rushed to confront the protesters.

“The Israel Police will continue to work to arrest and bring to justice anyone who disrupts public order, causes damage to property and acts violently towards public servants and law enforcement officials,” the police say in a statement.

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