Gantz: Giving Ben Gvir control of West Bank Border Police means ‘serious harm’ to security

Defense Minister Benny Gantz says acceding to the incoming police minister’s request to transfer West Bank Border Police to his control would cause “serious harm” to security.

“I think that moving the authority over the Judea and Samaria Border Police is serious harm,” the defense minister says in response to reporter questions at a Kfar Maccabiah press conference. Judea and Samaria, the biblical term for the West Bank, is also the military’s terminology for the area.

Far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir is slated to become national security minister in the right-wing and religious government forming under presumed incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gantz says that military’s operational and command structure should remain independent from political control.

“I emphasize that while the [IDF] chief of staff and IDF commanders are subject to the decisions of the political echelon, they have the authority and responsibility to manage the IDF’s operational and command activities,” Gantz says.

In comments directed at IDF commanders, Gantz says: “I know that you will remain… loyal to your position and to the political echelon, and at the same time — that you will never bow your head to a political pressure system.”