Ben Gvir urges PM to threaten the US with collapsing PA if far-right ministers are sanctioned

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to notify the Biden administration in Washington this week that Israel will collapse the Palestinian Authority if the US goes ahead with a plan it is considering to sanction him and fellow far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The statement follows a report in the Axios news site that Biden is considering the move, which US officials confirmed to The Times of Israel.

Ben Gvir says the sanctions that the US has already been imposing against Israeli extremists amount to a “serious violation of Israeli sovereignty.”

“It is no wonder that those who compromise toward the global terrorist branch from Tehran; finance terrorist regimes such as the Palestinian Authority, which rewards with fixed salaries those who kill Jews; and deprive Israel of essential weapons to deal with terrorism, seek to impose sanctions on Israeli leaders who ‘sinned’ by demanding a more determined war against terrorism,” Ben Gvir says.

The US does not finance the PA.

Ben Gvir urged Netanyahu to inform the Biden administration that if sanctions are imposed against him and Smotrich or if the sanctions against Israeli citizens continue, “the Israeli response will be the complete collapse of the Palestinian Authority, all of its institutions and its economy.”