Meretz MK Yair Golan demanded that Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir be ousted from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee immediately on Friday.
Golan mentioned in his letter that Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai held Ben-Gvir responsible for encouraging violence among Arabs and Jews and starting an intifada, with the demonstrations at the Damascus Gate and Sheikh Jarrah, and now stirring violence in mixed cities. Shabtai warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Ben-Gvir's actions were causing a "Jewish intifada."Ben-Gvir claimed he was verbally attacked because he said Shabtai should resign early due to "police failures."
"How is it that the commissioner decided that I was heating things ups, precisely after I said he should be fired? This is not accidental. What are we, a mafia? Is he trying to shut me up?" he responded on Friday.
However in response to the incident, Golan wrote, "There are fears that MK Ben Gvir will use his status, position and sensitive information to which he was exposed in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to quell and ignite the passions and violence between Jews and Arabs, and lead to further bloodshed, as he did in Lod, Acre and Jerusalem."
"It is also extremely unreasonable for an MK that the commissioner claims to be starting a "Jewish intifada" to sit as a full member of a trust forum for the security of the state and its citizens," he concluded.