Itamar Ben-Gvir

Itamar Ben Gvir ( _he. איתמר בן-גביר; born 1976) is a leader of and the spokesman for The Chayil Party, a far right Jewish party in Israel.

Party Policy

Among its goals are the transfer of all Non-Jews in Israel who object to Israel as a Jewish state. A member of the Kach Party since the age of 14, Ben Gvir denies that there is a such thing as current membership, citing government harassment as impeding that. Nevertheless, he and his colleagues, mainly the former Kach leaders Noam Federman and Baruch Marzel, remain the students of their teacher and leader, Kach founder and ideologue Rabbi Meir Kahane, as the basis of their arguments.

Rise to Prominence

Since the 1990 assassination of terrorist Rabbi Kahane in New York, Marzel has been the de facto political leader of the former Kach activists. Today, Ben-Gvir is the spokesman and youth organizer and Federman is the most aggressive activist in the field and the spiritual leader of The Hilltop Youth. Ben Gvir has often been accused of incitement for the fierce verbal attacks he throws against political figures, almost always calling them in some way traitors. Ben Gvir is a fixture of settler violence against Palestinians living near Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Since the February 25, 1994 massacre of Palestinians in Hebron by Dr. Baruch Goldstein security authorities have increased their pressure and surveillance of Ben-Gvir and fellow activists. He has boasted that he was detained in prison more times than he can count, but maintains that every detention was administrative, meaning that he never received trial, and that therefore this constitutes state harassment. Ben-Gvir's causes have often led to media frenzies. A notorious incident was one in Jerusalem in the 1990s when he chased senior Palestinian Authority official Muhammad Dahlan using an Israeli flag as his weapon, a scene that humiliated both local security officials and Dahlan's bodyguards. Ben-Gvir recently led protests during the visit of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, denouncing the hanging of German flags for the state visit. He claims that the German state doesn't deserve any special honours in the country where its victims' descendants found refuge.

Obama Visit

On July 24, 2008, Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot reported that Ben-Gvir marred a visit by Senator Barack Obama to Jerusalem's Western Wall by heckling the Illinois senator:

"The only interruption to the otherwise calm visit was by extreme-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who shouted "Jerusalem is not for sale!" at the senator's entourage." [ [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3572539,00.html Ynet] ]

ternhell

On the terrorist attack on Zeev Sternhell, Ben-Gvir has said "I don't denounce this incident, but say categorically that we are not involved." [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024632.html Ha'aretz] "Leftist prof.: Bomb at my home shows settler violence spilling over Green Line" By Jonathan Lis]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,129014,00.html Officials: Jewish Extremists Plotting Violence]
* [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3572539,00.html US is Israel's true friend, says Obama at Western Wall]