National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir spoke to Israel National News on Monday and commented on the fear of a political assassination occurring in Israel, while rejecting the criticism against him that has been sounded by officials in the Israel Police.
“It’s interesting that those officials are not even prepared to reveal their names. I say in the clearest way: Every day I receive intelligence materials that point to a huge level of sedition and incitement, to calls for the murder of Prime Minister Netanyahu, his wife and myself. That’s why I said I’m afraid of a political murder,” Ben Gvir said.
“If there are political elements in the police who want to argue over this, that is the reason why we need to create a non-political police force here. Most of the police officers work for the people of Israel and if there is one frustrated officer who wants to be political – I won’t let him,” he added.
Asked why he insists on calling demonstrators protesting against the judicial reform “anarchists”, the minister replied, “The majority of the public that I know and see support my statements and understand what I meant. There are those demonstrators who cry out from their hearts and that is important. As someone who demonstrated for a long time, I understand them and will fight for their right to demonstrate. Who are those anarchists I’m talking about? The ones who harassed the Prime Minister’s wife at the salon, who we saw throw an iron fence at a policeman or who dismantled roadblocks. They want to bring about anarchy and I make no apologies to them. I will continue to call them anarchists and it only saddens me that Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, instead of condemning them, encourage this behavior.”
Ben Gvir stated that he does not give instructions to the police in the field during the demonstrations but only sets a general policy. “I don’t dictate to the police what to activate and how to activate it, but I did insist on a policy that will not allow the blocking of a main transportation artery. Those who do this prevent an ambulance from arriving at a hospital, prevent emergency medical treatments from arriving. You cannot do such a thing. There was an outcry against me, as to why I was in the command center and I replied: Wasn’t Omer Barlev also in the command center? Didn’t Amir Ohana or Gilad Erdan do that? My job is to outline policy and, in my opinion, blocking of roads should not be permitted.”
“They want to force me to apologize and justify myself. I will not apologize to the anarchist left and I am not afraid. Freedom of demonstration is a fundamental right but not at the cost of anarchy,” the Minister of National Security noted.
Asked about the possibility of compromises and negotiations related to the judicial reform, he replied, “I call for dialogue time and time again because we are brothers, but that does not mean that all the moves should be stopped.”

Finally, the Minister of National Security was asked whether he intends to continue the enforcement operations in eastern Jerusalem during the month of Ramadan after the defense establishment recommended that they be stopped.
“First of all, the operation was successful. We enforced and demolished dozens of houses and it was very successful. It will not stop the wave of terrorism – but it is clear now that the Israel Police is operating everywhere – including in eastern Jerusalem. There is still a lot of work to be done in this ministry and I believe that terrorism can be defeated and deterred. We need a security concept not of containment, surrender or silence, but of a war on terror – also during Ramadan – and to fight the enemies and haters of Israel with determination.”