Itamar Ben-Gvir ( ; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who has served as the minister of national security since 2022, except for a two-month gap in early 2025. He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit ("Jewish Power"), an Israeli far-right, Kahanist and anti-Arab party which won six seats in the 2022 legislative election and is part of the thirty-seventh government of Israel.
Ben-Gvir is a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; according to the BBC, his "political background lies in Kahanism—a violently racist movement that supports the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands". He has a long history of anti-Arab activism, leading to dozens of indictments and at least eight convictions of crimes including incitement to racism and support for, as well as possession of propaganda of, a terrorist organization (the now-illegal Kach political party). As a lawyer, he is known for defending Jews accused of Jewish extremist terrorism in Israeli courts.
Ben-Gvir is known for being a provocateur and has attracted headlines for a variety of reasons: threatening Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on live television in 1995 shortly before his assassination; having had a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish terrorist and mass murderer; calling in 2019 for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to the state; inciting violent clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 2021; and making highly controversial visits to the Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located, in 2023 and 2024.
On 18 January 2025, it was reported that Ben-Gvir intended to resign from his ministerial position in response to the approval and implementation of the three-phase Gaza war ceasefire deal. He resigned on 19 January 2025. Two months later, it was announced that he and other party members would return to the government after an agreement was reached, following the continuation of airstrikes in Gaza.
Early life Itamar Ben-Gvir was born on 6 May 1976, in Mevaseret Zion. His father, Tzadok Ben-Gvir, worked at a gasoline company and dabbled in writing, while his mother, Shoshana Ben-Gvir, joined the Irgun at age 14 and was arrested by the British, later becoming a stay-at-home mother. His parents were Mizrahi Jews, originally from Iraq. Ben-Gvir claimed to be of Kurdish Jewish descent. Although his family was secular and moderate, Ben-Gvir was radicalized during the First Intifada, having first joined a youth movement affiliated with the right-wing anti-Arab party Moledet, and later the youth movement of the even more radical Kach and Kahane Chai parties, which were designated as terrorist and banned by the Israeli government. He had also identified with the baal teshuva movement. Ben-Gvir became the youth coordinator of Kach, and claimed to have been detained at the age of 14. By the time he reached the age of 18, his reputation as a teen provocateur had disqualified him from serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Ben-Gvir was active in protests against the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, and came to public attention for the first time in 1995, when he appeared on television brandishing a Cadillac hood ornament stolen from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's car, and declared: "We got to his car, and we'll get to him too." Several weeks later, Rabin was assassinated by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir.Reenvisioning Israel Through Political Cartoons: Visual Discourses During the 2018–2021 Electoral Crisis, Matt Reingold, 2022, pp. 89-90, ISBN 9781978794207.
Ben-Gvir continued to be associated with the Kahanist movement; Otzma Yehudit is considered Kach's ideological successor. However, when forming the Otzma Yehudit party, he claimed that it would not be a Kach, Kahane Chai or splinter group. He carried out a series of far-right activities that have resulted in dozens of indictments. In a November 2015 interview, he claimed to have been indicted 53 times. In most cases, the charges were thrown out of court. In 2007, however, he was convicted for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. Following a bombing in Jerusalem, Ben-Gvir had chanted "Death to Arabs" and held signs reading "Expel the Arab enemy" and "Rabbi Kahane was right: The Arab MKs are a fifth column."*
Ben-Gvir has been convicted of at least eight charges.
Legal career
Ben-Gvir sometimes represented himself during his many indictments, and at the suggestion of several judges, he decided to study law. Ben-Gvir studied law at the Ono Academic College. At the end of his studies, the Israel Bar Association blocked him from taking the bar exam on grounds of his criminal record. Ben-Gvir claimed the decision was politically motivated. After a series of appeals, this decision was overturned, but it was ruled that Ben-Gvir would first have to settle three criminal cases in which he was charged at the time. After being acquitted in all three cases on charges including holding an illegal gathering and disturbing a civil servant, Ben-Gvir was allowed to take the exam. He passed the written and oral examinations, and was granted a license to practice law.
As a lawyer, Ben-Gvir has represented a series of far-right Jewish activists suspected of terrorism and hate crimes, some of which are colloquially known as hilltop youth. He has stated that his work representing them is ideologically motivated. Notable clients include Kahanist activist Benzi Gopstein and two teenagers charged in the Duma arson attack, in which three people died, including a 18 month baby. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz described Ben-Gvir as the "go-to man" for Jewish extremists facing legal trouble, and reported that his client list "reads like a 'Who's Who' of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes in Israel". Ben-Gvir has also represented Lehava, a far-right Israeli anti-assimilation organization founded by Gopstein which is active in opposing Jewish intermarriage with non-Jews, and has sued the Jerusalem Waqf.
Political career
Early political activity and Knesset elections
Ben-Gvir was the parliamentary assistant in the 18th Knesset for Michael Ben-Ari. In the 2013 Israeli legislative election, he was placed fifth on the Otzma Leyisrael list, but failed to enter Knesset since the party did not pass the election threshold. On 23 July 2017, he was part of the leadership of a protest that included dozens of people outside of the prime minister's office in Jerusalem. The protest was held by both Lehava and Otzma Yehudit ('Jewish Power').
Ben-Gvir had planned to run for a seat in the Knesset in the 2019 Israeli legislative election in the first slot of a combined Noam/Otzma Yehudit electoral list, though the two parties split over Otzma's inclusion of a secular candidate on the combined list (which Noam disagreed with). Ben-Gvir was in the third seat of a joint list that included Otzma Yehudit, Noam and the Religious Zionist Party that ran in the 2021 Israeli legislative election. He was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won six seats.
In the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Otzma Yehudit again ran as part of a combined list with the Religious Zionist Party, led by Bezalel Smotrich. This combined list was strongly encouraged by Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly posted a video address warning against the parties running independently and risking falling below the 3.25% electoral threshold needed to get a seat. The prospect of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich entering government was highly controversial. Yaakov Katz, the then editor of The Jerusalem Post, warned that such a government would work "toward the same goal of destroying Israeli democracy." The combined list received the 3rd most votes in the 25th Knesset, a total of 14 seats out of 120. Ben-Gvir and his party entered a Netanyahu-led government. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog was heard on a hot mic saying that the entire world was worried about Ben-Gvir becoming a minister. It was reported in late November 2022 that Ben-Gvir would head the newly created National Security Ministry, whose duties would include overseeing the Israel Border Police in the West Bank.
Minister of National Security As minister, Ben-Gvir worked to loosen Israel's firearm-ownership regulations. His office stated in August 2025 that reforms had led to 230,000 new firearm licenses. He also encouraged the creation of the National Guard of Israel.
On 26 January 2024 he accused the International Court of Justice of antisemitism following its ruling on the case South Africa v. Israel. He was the subject of a foiled assassination plot by seven Arab citizens of Israel and four Palestinians from the West Bank in 2024.
The Arab community in Israel has seen a significant increase in violence and organized crime, including a rise in gang-related murders in recent years, in which both the victims and perpetrators are predominantly Arab Israeli citizens. A report by The Abraham Initiatives highlighted that 244 Arab community members were killed in Israel in 2023, more than double the previous year's count. The report attributed this surge in homicides directly to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's inadequate response to surging criminal violence in Arab Israeli towns.
On 30 March 2026, the bill approving the application of the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians in the West Bank convicted of terrorism, which Ben-Gvir supported since the beginning of his time as National Security minister, was passed by the Knesset. Speaking after the passage of the bill, Ben-Gvir said "This is a day of justice for the victims, a day of deterrence for the enemies. No more revolving doors for terrorists, only a clear decision. Those who choose terror choose death. Those who believe do not fear. The people of Israel live!" Ben-Gvir has said that death penalty legislation in the United States served as a model during the drafting of the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law. Speaking about the condemnations of the law which had been made by foreign ministers from Europe, Ben-Gvir said "I hope that they won’t need to undergo an October 7 to understand why the law is important," and that “No one should try to teach Israel its morals".
In September 2026, Haaretz reported that 28% of Israeli police personnel who were recruited since Ben Gvir became national security minister, resigned from the police.
Resignation and return to government On 16 January 2025, Ben-Gvir held a press conference in which he announced his intention to resign as minister and withdraw Otzma Yehudit from the coalition if the government accepted the three-phase ceasefire proposal. The proposal was accepted, and Ben-Gvir subsequently resigned alongside his party's ministers when the ceasefire went into effect on 19 January 2025. His term expired on 21 January. Otzma Yehudit has stated its intention to rejoin the governing coalition if the deal does not result in a permanent ceasefire. His party announced their intention to return to the government on 18 March 2025. The cabinet approved Ben-Gvir's reappointment that night and it was approved by the Knesset the following day.
Ben-Gvir spearheaded the attempted construction of a crocodile-filled moat around Ktzi'ot Prison in July 2026. However, construction was halted on 2 August due to a legal challenge by animal rights activists. Middle East Eye reported at the time that the project was "the latest in a series of measures proposed by [Ben-Gvir] to make detention conditions for Palestinian prisoners even more unbearable".
On 16 August 2026 Ben-Gvir appeared on the October 8 podcast hosted by Rom Braslavski. During the podcast Ben-Gvir publicly criticised Netanyahu and called for further escalation in Gaza, suggesting targeted killing of Palestinians "not worthy of life".
International sanctions, travel bans and legal actions