1. Follower of the infamous Rabbi Meir Kahane
The rabbi was a violent Jewish supremacist whose militant groups—the Jewish Defense League, the Kach political party, and their offshoots—were designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Ben-Gvir is a disciple of the American-born extremist rabbi who preached violence and called for the enslavement or expulsion of all Palestinians from Palestine/Israel, and who, as a member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in the 1980s, introduced legislation to that effect.
Members of Kahane's groups have carried out numerous terrorist attacks since the 1970s, killing dozens of Palestinians and Americans and wounding many more. The U.S. State Department designated Kach and other Kahaneist groups as terrorist organizations after one of its followers massacred 29 Palestinians praying at the al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994. Ben-Gvir continued Kahane's extremist legacy, often glorifying him over the years, inciting racism and violence against Palestinians as leader of the Kahaneist Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party, while rising to one of the most powerful positions in the Israeli government, that of Minister of National Security.
2. As Minister of National Security, he is responsible for the Israeli police and prison system
This system has been condemned by human rights groups as a network of „torture camps” for Palestinians. Human rights groups, UN experts and journalists have documented widespread, systematic torture of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons – including doctors, journalists, children and other civilians – most of whom have never been charged or convicted of anything. The torture includes severe beatings, starvation, burns, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and denial of medical care, leading to numerous deaths and mutilations.
Ben-Gvir boasted about the cruel conditions he imposed on Palestinians and others imprisoned by Israel, and in videos he posted on social media, he threatened and humiliated Palestinians and foreign human rights activists. It is known that at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli captivity under Ben-Gvir's watch since October 2023.
3. He led the passage of Israel's racist new death penalty law
This law applies exclusively to Palestinians. Ben-Gvir was the driving force behind the draconian death penalty law passed by the Knesset in March 2026, which the UN and human rights organizations have described as racist and one of the „most radical” death penalty laws in the world.
4. It would ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the entire territory of historic Palestine
Ben-Gvir has been calling for years for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. He would create a „ministry of migration” to deal with native Palestinian Israeli citizens, whom he considers „disloyal.” Since October 2023, he has repeatedly called on Israel to „encourage” the „voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, which Israel is systematically destroying as part of an ongoing genocide to make it uninhabitable, leaving Palestinians with no choice but to flee or die.
5. International sanctions and travel bans
In June 2025, the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand imposed travel bans and economic sanctions on Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for "repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinian communities" in the West Bank, stating: "Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extreme violence and serious violations of Palestinian human rights."„
6. He wants full Israeli control over Al-Aqsa Mosque
Ben-Gvir seeks full control of the Noble Sanctuary (Noble Mosque) complex, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. He has made frequent provocative visits to assert his control over Islam's third holiest site and one of the world's most sensitive holy sites.
For decades, Messianic Jewish extremists have been working to seize the 1,300-year-old Noble Sanctuary, destroy the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and build a Jewish temple in their place where two ancient Jewish temples are believed to have stood. As Minister of National Security, Ben-Gvir overturned the decades-old „status quo,” in which only Muslims could pray inside the Noble Sanctuary. Disguising his efforts as religious freedom, Ben-Gvir’s police force is now allowing Jews to pray openly on the grounds of the Noble Sanctuary, a step toward making it an exclusively Jewish site.
7. Settler living illegally on stolen Palestinian land
Ben-Gvir lives in Kiryat Arba, one of the most extreme Israeli settlements in the West Bank, built on occupied Palestinian land outside the city of Hebron in violation of international law and decades of official US policy.
8. He was convicted several times for supporting a terrorist organization and inciting racism
As a notorious far-right activist in Israel, Ben-Gvir has been charged with crimes 46 times over decades and convicted eight times, including rioting, supporting a terrorist organization and racist incitement for promoting Kahane's ideology.
9. As a lawyer, he defended violent extremists
Before his political career, Ben-Gvir worked as a lawyer with a far-right group called Honenu, defending Jewish extremists accused or convicted of violent attacks, including murder, against Palestinians and left-wing Israelis. His clients included an Israeli settler convicted of the murder of three family members: a mother, a father, and their 18-month-old son, who were killed in an arson attack on their West Bank home in 2015.
10. Framed photo of mass murderer Baruch Goldstein
For decades, Ben-Gvir’s office featured a framed photograph of fellow Kahanist Baruch Goldstein, the American-born settler who shot and killed 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron in 1994. In 2020, he removed the picture under pressure as he sought to appear more moderate in order to form an alliance with other right-wing parties ahead of the Knesset elections.
