State attorney indicts former hard-right MK for incitement to racism against Arabs

Ultra-nationalist politician and former MK Michael Ben Ari is indicted on charges of incitement to racism for “dozens” of public statements during the years 2017 to 2023 in which he incited against Arab Israelis, the State Attorney’s Office announces.

The Otzma Yehudit founder and former MK for the National Union party, a predecessor of the current Religious Zionism party, made his comments in public speeches, media interviews and on his social media accounts, which have tens of thousands of followers, and on which he called on his followers to share and promote his racist outbursts.

The indictment charges that Ben Ari, a student and follower of the late racist far-right leader rabbi Meir Kahane, repeatedly referred to Arab citizens of Israel as “enemies,” “a fifth column,” “occupiers” and “a nation of murderers” during those years.

Ben Ari also attributed to Arab Israelis in general “responsibility and complicity” for terror attacks committed by Arabs criminals or assailants, the indictment alleges, and would also attribute negative stereotypes to Arab Israelis, accusing them of being “violent, cruel and murderous.”

The far-right leader also claimed that Arab Israelis as a whole wished to “eliminate,” “slaughter” and “destroy” all Jews, said that they did not belong in Israel but rather in their “country of origin,” and called to “exclude them from the basic aspects of normal life.”

In March 2019, the High Court of Justice barred Ben Ari from running in Knesset elections due to his record of incitement, resulting ultimately in far-right activist and current national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir taking control of the party.

Ben Ari and other founders of Otzma Yehudit left the party after alleging that Ben Gvir had taken it in a more moderate direction and abandoned Kahane’s path.