Yitzhak Rabin Center said to cancel National Security Ministry event over Ben Gvir’s planned speech

The Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv has cancelled a conference to be held by the National Security Ministry because ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was due to speak, according to the Haaretz daily.

Sources cited by the newspaper say the center informed the ministry that the event was being scrapped to avoid having a political figure speak soon before the October 27 elections, but that the real reason for the cancellation was to prevent a speech by Ben Gvir.

As a teenage activist, Ben Gvir gained notoriety when he was filmed bragging about having stolen the emblem from then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car, shortly before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

“Just like we got to this emblem, we can get to Rabin,” Ben Gvir said at the time.