From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 15, 2024
Ben Gvir calls on PM to fire Gallant as forces prepare to dismantle illegal outpost
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 calls on the prime minister to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after security forces begin preparations to dismantle the illegal Gal Yosef outpost in the West Bank.
“Defense Minister Gallant’s decision to evacuate and destroy buildings on the Gal Yosef farm where 14-year old Benjamin Achimeir was murdered, even during the week of shiva [mourning], represents terrible obtuseness, moral confusion, security folly, and a violation of the dignity of the dead,” Ben Gvir says.
“Instead of establishing and approving more farms and expanding Jewish settlement, we surrender to the enemy,” the far-right minister says, declaring that “the time has come for the prime minister to consider replacing Minister Gallant.”
Achimeir went missing after setting out in the early morning hours of Friday from a farm near the unauthorized West Bank outpost of Malachei Shalom to go shepherding, according to the IDF. He was later found dead in what the IDF and Shin Bet security agency designated as a terror attack — resulting in an extremist settler rampage in several Palestinian villages and violent clashes.
According to Hebrew media, police and representatives of the Civil Administration have begun confiscating equipment at the illegal farm in preparation for its demolition.
