Figure of the Israeli extreme right, Ben Gvir is a favorite target of Israel's enemies. This Thursday, April 4, the Shin Bet claimed to have foiled an attack against the Minister of National Security, report several local media, including the
Jerusalem Post
. The Israeli intelligence service says it has dismantled a terrorist cell made up of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, which allegedly aimed to assassinate the politician using an RPG rocket launcher.
The 11 suspects, arrested this week, were also planning attacks on IDF bases and planning to capture Israeli soldiers, according to the Shin Bet, cited by the Times of Israel. Other sensitive sites were also targeted, such as Ben Gurion airport, the government complex in Jerusalem or the settlement of Kiryat Arba, in the West Bank, Ben Gvir's place of residence. The four Palestinian suspects are from Tulkarem and Jenin. The nine Israeli Arabs all live in Rahat.
Also read: In Hebron, extremist Ben Gvir worries Palestinians and comforts settlers
This town in the Negev, mainly made up of Bedouins, would have served as a base camp for the terrorist cell, which planned to establish an underground weapons factory there, according to the Shin Bet. The agency also claims that members of the cell attempted to contact Hamas officials in Gaza to finance these attacks.
Ben Gvir, symbol of the radical far-right
Symbol of the most radical Israeli far right, Itamar Ben Gvir has been targeted by several assassination attempts in recent years. The latest took place before the massacre of October 7, in September 2023. A terrorist cell, remotely controlled by Iran, had already been dismantled. In favor of the expulsion of Palestinians who have Israeli nationality, he campaigned in his youth within supremacist organizations now classified as terrorists. As head of the Jewish Force party, he frequently organized provocative demonstrations in neighborhoods with a high Arab proportion, equating this population with
“terrorists”
.
Also read: Itamar Ben Gvir: the appetites of the leader of the Israeli far right
Appointed Minister of Internal Security in the Benjamin Netanyahu government in December 2022, he banned the Palestinian flag in Israeli public spaces on January 8, 2023. He is also the subject of intense criticism for his violent repression of demonstrations against reform of the judicial system. After the October 7 massacre, Ben Gvir calls for Israeli recolonization of Gaza once the war is over.