Herzog blasts ‘brutishness’ of settler violence, appears to take shot at Ben Gvir over treatment of prisoners

President Isaac Herzog slams the “brutishness” of settler violence in the West Bank while appearing to take a shot at far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over the treatment of prisoners in Israeli custody, at a ceremony granting the Jerusalem Unity Prize.

“We are witnesses to a wave of terrible violence that is being carried out by an anarchist mob, acts that defile and violate every basic moral, legal, and Jewish norm,” he says.

“We must not tolerate this brutishness that comes from the margins of society and threatens us all. Our people are a magnificent people, with tremendous strengths, but we must draw red lines. I stand here and say it out loud — unity begins with humanity,” he adds.

Herzog stresses that it must be “forbidden to abuse prisoners” no matter how terrible their crimes are, possibly referring to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s video of himself tormenting activists detained from the Global Summit Flotilla.

Responding to the speech, Ben Gvir writes on X, “A president who calls hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens brutes is not fit to be president. Full stop.”