Ben Gvir denounces High Court petition urging his dismissal as ‘delusional and unhinged’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounces a High Court petition urging his dismissal as “delusional and unhinged” during a speech to officers at the National Police Academy, taking pride in his backing of officers implicated in lethal shootings.

The petitioners are requesting that the court order Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss Ben Gvir, alleging the minister has unlawfully interfered in police operational matters to the detriment of the force’s independence.

Speaking at the institution’s annual Independence Day ceremony in Beit Shemesh, Ben Gvir says yesterday’s High Court hearing is “no secret” and calls the petition a “delusional and unhinged request to dismiss me, to dismiss a minister of the State of Israel.”

He then cites one of the arguments leveled against him in court — that his tendency to issue automatic, public support to police implicated in lethal shootings could erode officers’ restraint.

The far-right minister boasts of several times in which he gave backing to police officers who used lethal force against suspects.

“They claimed I gave backing to a Border Police officer who shot at a stone-thrower that sought to kill him… that I gave backing to cops who [criminals] tried to run over and harm and [the cops] shot them… that I gave backing to an officer who shot at someone who launched fireworks at him to blind him,” he says.

“The attorney general sees all these things as a problem. I see them as the biggest advantage… The time has come for you all to have a minister who will love, embrace and support you,” he continues.

Yesterday, High Court president Justice Isaac Amit said Ben Gvir’s routine support for officers seems to be conditioned on politics. “We see, and this isn’t [just] a feeling, that the minister very much supports the police officers — that’s fantastic — but only if they do something for one side,” the judge said.

“He supports the officers that hit a protester,” Amit said. “When [an officer] kills an Arab, whether in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Tarabin [al-Sana], there is support.” Meanwhile, when “police beat Haredim at Mount Meron [during Lag B’Omer], there is no support, they are immediately accused.”