National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir encouraged the illegal use of stun grenades against protesters opposing the government’s judicial reforms in March 2023, according to leaks from a WhatsApp group of the minister’s close advisers, published by Haaretz police reporter Josh Breiner on Sunday afternoon.Ben-Gvir attended Tel Aviv police headquarters during a protest on March 1, 2023, in which the stun grenades were used. According to the messages, whose authenticity could not be independently verified by The Jerusalem Post, Ben-Gvir’s chief of staff, Hanamel Dorfman, suggested the minister publish a picture of himself from the headquarters to take credit for the action. Ben-Gvir agreed and directed his team to put out the picture as soon as the use of the grenades was verified.A police officer named Meir Suissa was eventually indicted for their illegal use. Ben-Gvir promoted Suissa after the indictment, but the promotion was ruled illegal by the attorney-general’s office and rescinded.
Ben-Gvir is legally prohibited from giving the police operational directives, and there is an ongoing case against him in the High Court of Justice for doing exactly that. The leaked messages support the claim that the minister intervened illegally.In the aforementioned WhatsApp discussion, an adviser warned Ben-Gvir not to appear to take credit for using the grenades due to legal restrictions. The minister chose instead to heed the advice of a different adviser, Nevo Cohen, who wrote, “From now on, you need to show authority. A change of policy.”
What did Channel 13 report?
Ben-Gvir lost a court challenge on Sunday to prevent the airing of messages from internal WhatsApp groups in an episode called “Ben-Gvir’s Secrets” on a central Israeli television channel on Sunday night.
The Channel 13 exposé showcased text and voice messages between Ben-Gvir and his inner circle, including Bentzi Gopstein, a close adviser who was banned from running for the Knesset in 2019, Hanamel Dorfman, an Israeli settler activist, and Ofer Cohen.
The messages spanned several years, including when Ben-Gvir entered the Knesset on a joint list with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich under the Netanyahu government.
The exposé also showed how Ben-Gvir's wife, Ayala, plays an important role akin to a "spokeswoman" for Ben-Gvir.
Channel 13 highlighted the relationship between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, specifically the latter praying on the Temple Mount during the Jewish holidays and his encouragement of others to go to the Temple Mount to pray. The report showed that Ben-Gvir knew that by going to the Temple Mount, he could make the prime minister panic. An additional example of this was that Ben-Gvir was planning on residing in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City during Passover as a way to pressure Netanyahu.
Ben-Gvir moved to live in the Jewish Quarter during the last days of Ramadan because he hoped to spur conflict between Muslims and Jews.
Additionally, when Sara Netanyahu was evacuated from a hair salon in Tel Aviv due to protesters in 2023, Ben-Gvir hoped the police would use force against protesters and also sought to remove Israel Police Tel Aviv District Commander Ami Eshed from his position in 2023.
Ben-Gvir also wanted to conduct searches in the homes of Arabs in east Jerusalem, dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield 2," but he knew that the police would not do so because they were Israeli citizens. Channel 13 reported that Ben-Gvir and his team sought to cause commotion that would covered in the media and thought that more coverage would garner voters. There was no intelligence to back Ben-Gvir's proposition, and it caused unrest in east Jerusalem.
Ben-Gvir told confidantes he did not believe Hamas could be defeated in Gaza
Video snippets from the episode, which will air as part of Channel 13’s Hamekor (“The Source”) show hosted by journalist Raviv Drucker, show that Ben-Gvir told confidantes that he did not believe Hamas could be defeated in Gaza. This contradicted his fiery rhetoric since the outbreak of the war.Other quotes from an internal WhatsApp group that were published in Haaretz showed that, contrary to his denials, Ben-Gvir received constant counseling from the far-right extremist Bentzi Gopstein on matters relating to his ministry.Gopstein has been convicted of racist incitement against Arab Israelis and was disqualified from running in an election due to his racist positions.The source of the leaks remains unclear. Notably, the leaks came a short while after the arrest of a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged leaking of top-secret information to foreign media, who previously served as a spokesperson for Ben-Gvir and was part of his inner circle.Ahead of the court hearing over Ben-Gvir’s demand to prevent the show from airing, the minister accused the “left-wing media” of “attempting to harm” him due to his success in passing a bill to enable the expulsion from Israel of family members of terrorists, and “an assortment of laws that we are doing, reforms we are doing in the prisons, [and] the firearms reforms.”“Just as in the United States they are trying to harm [US President-Elect Donald] Trump, so too in Israel they are trying to harm me," Ben-Gvir said.