No longer shunned, far-right Ben Gvir to visit US, eyeing official meetings

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is slated to visit the United States after the upcoming Passover holiday, a source familiar with the matter tells to the Times of Israel.

Ben Gvir will make stops in Washington and Florida, the source says, adding that the minister is aiming to meeting with US officials, Republican influencers and Jewish community leaders.

This will be the leader of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party’s first trip to the United States as a representative of the Israeli government as well as his first visit since his childhood. According to the Maariv daily, Ben Gvir was invited to meet with counterparts at the Department of Homeland Security, but the source tells The Times of Israel no meetings have been finalized.

The upcoming trip represents a marked shift in Washington’s approach to the far right firebrand, who was effectively boycotted by the administration of former President Joe Biden. While the Biden White House ultimately refrained from doing it, the administration had at one point considered sanctioning Ben Gvir.

Last November, Washington condemned Ben Gvir after photos emerged showing the hardliner paying his respects at the grave of extremist rabbi Meir Kahane.

Ben Gvir, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, has previously attempted to distance himself from his association with Kahane, who headed the proscribed ultra-nationalist group Kach before his death at the hands of an assassin in 1990.

“As we’ve said on previous and similar occasions, celebrating the legacy of a terrorist and a terrorist organization is abhorrent. We strongly condemn any attempt to whitewash acts of terrorism,” a State Department spokesperson said at the time.

Ben Gvir, who has previously been convicted for incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization, has himself threatened people with his own personal handgun on more than one occasion.

In December 2021, the Knesset security chief summoned him for a talk after he brandished a pistol during an argument with Arab parking attendants in Tel Aviv. The following October, he again brandished a gun during a tour of an East Jerusalem neighborhood at a time of intense clashes between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.