Ben Gvir kicks off US trip with visit to Florida prison, gun store and Israeli supermarket

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tours south Florida at the start of his weeklong visit to the US.

On Monday Ben Gvir visited Bal Harbour, near Miami, where he met with area residents and chatted with a police officer. He then visited the Everglades Correctional Institute, a prison, where he met Jewish inmates, Ben Gvir’s office says. As national security minister, Ben Gvir oversees police and prison services.

Ben Gvir also visited an Israeli supermarket in Hollywood, Florida, stopped at a firearms store, and met with the Boca Raton Jewish community, his office says.

With Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir in a Jewish-owned gun store in the Miami area.
Israel has what to learn from the USA's 2nd Amendment thinking. pic.twitter.com/j1UIImKWDe

— Yishai Fleisher يشاي ישי פליישר ???? (@YishaiFleisher) April 21, 2025

After his visit to Florida, Ben Gvir will travel to the northeast, including a stop near Yale University in Connecticut on Wednesday. Ben Gvir will meet with Yale students and faculty at an off campus event hosted by Shabtai, a local Jewish group for Yale affiliates that is independent from the university.

On Thursday Shabtai will host Ben Gvir at another event in New York City.

Ben Gvir has not announced any meetings with government officials in New York. New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s office says there are no plans to meet with Ben Gvir and the NYPD does not respond to a request for information.

Leftist Israelis have announced plans to protest against Ben Gvir while he is in the region. The expat protest group UnXeptable shares videos showing an activist shouting at Ben Gvir at a Florida airport and says it will demonstrate against him in New York.