US, EU slam far-right Israeli minister’s ‘racist’ claim his rights outweigh that of Palestinians

Kareem Khadder, CNN
Fri, August 25, 2023

Atef Safadi/AFP via Getty Images


The United States and European Union Friday slammed comments by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that his right to life outweighs Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement in the occupied West Bank.

“We strongly condemn Minister Ben Gvir’s racist, destructive comments on the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank,” a US State Department spokesperson said.

“Such messages are particularly damaging when amplified by those in leadership positions… President [Joe] Biden and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken have been clear that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve to enjoy equal measures of freedom and security.”

The European Union also strongly condemned the remarks, saying: “All human beings are equal and should be treated the same way.”


Ben Gvir said Wednesday on Israel’s Channel 12 that his right, his wife’s right and his children’s right to walk through the streets of the West Bank was “much more important” than “Arabs’ right to movement and travel – excuse me, Mohammed, but this is the reality. This is the truth. My right to life outweighs your right to move on the streets.”

The “excuse me, Mohammed,” remark was addressed to Palestinian-Israeli journalist Mohammed Magadli, who was sitting across from him in the interview.

Ben Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party draws support mainly from Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and Ben Gvir is himself a settler.

The EU said in its condemnation of Ben Gvir that “settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state solution impossible.” Israel argues the settlements are not illegal because it claims the West Bank is disputed, not occupied, territory.

The United States frequently says that it considers settlements in the area Israel captured in 1967 to be an obstacle to peace.

Palestinians want the West Bank to be part of a future Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “condemns in the strongest terms the racist and heinous remarks made by Israel’s fascist Minister Itamar Ben Gvir… Israel’s systematic hate speech, provocative rhetoric, violence and dehumanization of the Palestinian people across decades are fomenting mass violence at unprecedented levels,” and called for sanctions on Ben Gvir and other Israeli officials “for inciting violence and destruction and knowingly leading and contributing to the mass persecution of the Palestinian people.”

A Top Israeli Official Finally Admitted the Truth About Justice in Israel

Ella Sherman
Thu, August 24, 2023 



A top Israeli official has admitted that Israeli rights take priority over the rights of Palestinians.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir confessed on Wednesday that he believes his family’s rights are more important than the freedom of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank—exposing the truth of the two-tiered system of justice.

“Sorry Mohammad, but that’s just the reality,” Ben-Gvir told journalist Mohammad Magadli on Channel 12 News. “My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs,” he added, using another name for the occupied West Bank.

Ben-Gvir’s entitled statement came after Magadli asked him about violent crime and terrorism and the Israeli government’s failure to address it.


This isn’t the first time Ben-Givir has expressed anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab views: He has been convicted of eight charges for inciting racism and supporting Kach, a right-wing anti-Palestinian terrorist organization in Israel.

Bella Hadid an ‘Israel-hater’, says country’s far-Right security minister

Fri, August 25, 2023

Bella Hadid has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights - Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Bella Hadid, the supermodel, has been called an “Israel-hater” by the country’s far-Right security minister.

In an interview with N12 News earlier this week, Itamar Ben-Gvir said the right to life and movement for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank trumped the right to movement for Palestinians.

Hadid – whose father is Palestinian and who has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights – criticised his comment on Instagram, on which she has almost 60 million followers.

“In no place, no time, especially in 2023, should one life be more valuable than another’s. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture or pure hatred,” she wrote on Thursday.

Mr Ben-Gvir responded in a statement calling Hadid an “Israel hater” and said she had shared only a segment of the interview on her social media account in order to portray him as a racist.

Israel rejects suggestions that it maintains an apartheid system over Palestinians.

On Thursday, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments as “racist and heinous” and said they “only confirm Israel’s apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy”.

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s comments were called ‘racist and heinous’ by the Palestinian foreign ministry - Amir Cohen/Reuters

Palestinians have long railed against travel restrictions, including checkpoints, imposed on them by Israel in the West Bank, an area where they exercise limited self-rule and which they seek as part of a future state.

Ben-Gvir, who lives in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near the West Bank city of Hebron, said in the interview the curbs were needed to protect his family’s security.

“My right, my wife’s right, my children’s right to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement for Arabs,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical Hebrew name.

Violence in the West Bank has surged over the past 15 months, with frequent Israeli military raids, Palestinian street attacks and Jewish settler assaults on Palestinian villages. Since January, at least 188 Palestinians and 35 people in Israel have been killed in hostilities.

Ben-Gvir, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition, has past convictions of support for terrorism and anti-Arab incitement. He has said his views have become more moderate since joining the government, without going into further detail.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has continued to expand dozens of settlements deemed illegal by the United Nations and most countries – a view Israel disputes.

Supermodel Bella Hadid criticized Israel's far-right security minister. Now he's lashing out at her

ISABEL DEBRE
Updated Fri, August 25, 2023 








TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s far-right national security minister lashed out at supermodel Bella Hadid on Friday for criticizing his recent fiery televised remarks about Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In an interview earlier this week with Israel’s Channel 12 following two deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the occupied territory, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued that his right to freedom of movement as a Jewish settler outweighs the same right for Palestinians.

“My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria, is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs,” Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday, using the biblical name for the West Bank. "The right to life comes before freedom of movement.”

Addressing Mohammad Magadli, a well-known Israeli-Arab television host who was in the studio, Ben-Gvir added: “Sorry, Mohammad. But that’s the reality.”


His statement drew widespread criticism as commentators seized on it as proof of allegations that Israel was turning into an apartheid system that seeks to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Protesters thronged outside Ben-Gvir’s home in a West Bank settlement on Friday to condemn his remarks. The catchphrase “Sorry, Mohammad” became meme fodder for social media as critics posted it alongside videos of Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Ben-Gvir's comments in a statement Friday night, saying that Israel “allows maximum freedom of movement” in the West Bank. Palestinian militants, Netanyahu said, “take advantage of this freedom of movement to murder Israeli women, children, and families by ambushing them at certain points on different routes.”

“This is what Minister Ben-Gvir meant when he said 'the right to life precedes freedom of movement,” Netanyahu added.

There are at least 645 physical barriers restricting Palestinian movement in the West Bank, according to U.N. monitors. Over half the barriers, the agency says, have a “severe impact on Palestinians” by preventing access to city centers, major roads, farmland, and other services.

Some 30 people have been killed by Palestinian attacks against Israelis since the start of this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank during that time, most of whom Israel says were militants.

Hadid, a world-famous supermodel and social media influencer whose father is Palestinian, shared an excerpt from Ben-Gvir’s interview with her 59.5 million followers on Instagram on Thursday, writing: “In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another’s. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture or pure hatred.”

She also posted a video from leading Israeli rights group B'Tselem showing Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron telling a resident that Palestinians are not permitted to walk on a certain street because it is reserved for Jews. “Does this remind anyone of anything?” she wrote.

Ben-Gvir responded angrily on Friday to Hadid's post.

“I invite you to Kiryat Arba, to see how we live here, how every day, Jews who have done nothing wrong to anyone in their lives are murdered here,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ben-Gvir lives in the settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, the largest Palestinian city.

Earlier this week, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car near Hebron, killing an Israeli woman and seriously wounding the driver. That attack came just days after a Palestinian shooting attack killed an Israeli father and son in the northern Palestinian town of Hawara.

Ben-Gvir acknowledged the backlash but doubled down on his original statement.

“So yes, the right of me and my fellow Jews to travel and return home safely on the roads of Judea and Samaria outweighs the right of terrorists who throw stones at us and kill us," he wrote.

Ben-Gvir has been convicted in the past of inciting racism and of supporting a terrorist organization. He was known as an admirer of rabbi Meir Kahane, who was banned from Parliament and whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the United States before he was assassinated in New York in 1990. Kach wanted to strip Arab Israelis of their citizenship, segregate Israeli public spaces, and ban marriages between Jews and non-Jews.

Before joining politics, Ben-Gvir hung a portrait in his living room of a Jewish man who fatally shot 29 Palestinians in the West Bank in 1994.

A once-marginal far-right activist, Ben-Gvir now wields significant power as the national security minister overseeing the Israeli police force in Netanyahu's government.

Israel far-right minister spars with supermodel Bella Hadid over Palestinian rights

Reuters
Updated Fri, August 25, 2023




JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday defended comments by his far-right national security minister that had sparked a row with U.S. supermodel Bella Hadid and drawn condemnation as racist from the Palestinians and Washington.

In an television interview on Wednesday, Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the right to life and safe travel of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank trumped the right to freedom of movement for Palestinians.

Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, responded a day later, telling her near 60 million followers on Instagram: "In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another's" - prompting a rebuke in turn from the minister on Friday.

Palestinians have long railed against restrictions, including checkpoints and travel permits, imposed on them by Israel in the West Bank, where they exercise limited self-rule and which they seek as part of a future state. The United Nations has documented 645 Israeli movement obstacles across the West Bank as of August, more than half of which it said have a severe impact on Palestinians.


Ben-Gvir, who lives in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near the West Bank city of Hebron, told N12 News on Wednesday: "My right, my wife's right, my children's right to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement for Arabs," referring to the West Bank by its biblical Hebrew name.

On Friday, he responded to Hadid's post, calling her an "Israel hater" and saying she had shared only a segment of the interview on her social media account in order to portray him as a racist.

Netanyahu in a statement said that Israel "allows maximum freedom of movement" for both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank while implementing security measures to prevent Palestinian attacks.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned Ben-Gvir's remarks on N12 News as "racist and heinous" and the U.S. State Department on Friday called his comments "inflammatory" and "racist".

Violence in the West Bank has surged over the past 15 months, with frequent Israeli military raids, Palestinian street attacks and Jewish settler assaults on Palestinian villages.

Since January, at least 188 Palestinians and 35 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in hostilities.

On Monday, a suspected Palestinian drive-by shooting killed an Israeli woman near the settlement when Ben-Gvir lives. In another part of the West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and critically wounded a Palestinian man who appeared to be running away from them towards another wounded man.

A member of Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition, Ben-Gvir has past convictions for support for terrorism and anti-Arab incitement. He says his views have become more moderate since joining the government, without going into further detail.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. It has continued to expand dozens of settlements that are deemed illegal by the United Nations and most countries, a view Israel disputes.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar; Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Giles Elgood)