Itamar Ben-Gvir

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Hebrew: אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר [itaˈmaʁ benˈgviʁ]; 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 that 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 whose "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.