Itamar Ben-Gvir

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Hebrew: איתמר בן-גביר‎; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli lawyer, and a leader in the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit party.[1] He is known for defending Jewish radicals on trial in Israel.[2] He has called for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to Israel.[3] Ben-Gvir had planned to run for a seat in the Knesset in September 2019 Israeli legislative election in the first slot of a combined Noam/Otzma Yehudit electoral list[4] though the two parties split over Otzma's inclusion of a secular candidate on the combined list (which Noam disagreed with).[5]

Itamar Ben-Gvir
איתמר בן-גביר‎
Born (1976-05-06) 6 May 1976
NationalityIsraeli
EducationOno Academic College
Known forLawyer
Stealing an emblem from Yitzhak Rabin's car
Kahanist activism
Political partyOtzma Yehudit

Biography

Itamar Ben-Gvir was born on 6 May 1976, and grew up in the affluent Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret Zion. His father was born in Jerusalem to Iraqi Jewish immigrants. He worked at a gasoline company and dabbled in writing. His mother was a Kurdish Jewish immigrant who had been active in the Irgun as a teenager and was a homemaker. His family was secular, but as a teenager, he adopted religious and radical right-wing views during the First Intifada. He first joined a right-wing youth movement affiliated with Moledet, a party which advocated transferring Arabs out of Israel, and then joined the youth movement of the even more radical Kach and Kahane Chai party, which was eventually outlawed by the Israeli government.[6] He became youth coordinator of Kach, and claimed that he was detained at age 14. When he came of age for conscription into the Israel Defense Forces at 18, he was exempted from service by the IDF due to his extreme-right political background.[2]

Ben-Gvir continued to be associated with the Kahanist movement.[7] In the 1990s, he was active in protests against the Oslo Accords. In 1995, a few weeks before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Ben-Gvir came to public attention for the first time when he appeared on television brandishing a Cadillac emblem that had been stolen from Rabin's car and declared: "We got to his car, and we'll get to him too."[2] However, when forming the Otzma Yehudit party, he claimed that it would not be a Kach Kahane Chai or splinter group.[8] He carried out a series of far-right activities that have resulted in dozens of indictments. In a November 2015 interview, he claimed to have been indicted 53 times.[9] In most cases, the charges were thrown out of court.[2]

Political Life

Itamar Ben-Gvir was the parliamentary assistant in the 18th Knesset for Michael Ben-Ari.[8] On 23 July 2017, he was part of the leadership of a protest that included dozens of people outside of the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem. The protest was held by both Lehava and Otzma Yehudit.[10]

On 25 February 2019, Ben-Gvir said that Arab citizens of Israel who were not loyal to Israel "must be expelled".[3] Ben-Gvir has a photo of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Muslims at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, hanging in his home.[11]

Law

Ben-Gvir sometimes represented himself during his many indictments, and at the suggestion of several judges, he decided to study law. Ben-Gvir studied law at the Ono Academic College.[2] At the end of his studies, the Israel Bar Association blocked him from taking the bar exam on grounds of his criminal record. Ben-Gvir claimed the decision was politically motivated. After a series of appeals, this decision was overturned, but it was ruled that Ben-Gvir would first have to settle three criminal cases in which he was charged at the time. After being acquitted in all three cases on charges including holding an illegal gathering and disturbing a civil servant, Ben-Gvir was allowed to take the exam. He passed the written and oral examinations, and was granted a license to practice law.[12][13]

As a lawyer, Ben-Gvir has represented a series of far-right Jewish activists suspected of terrorism and hate crimes. Notable clients include Benzi Gopstein and two teenagers charged in the Duma arson attack. Haaretz described Ben-Gvir as the "go-to man" for Jewish extremists facing legal trouble, and reported that his client list "reads like a 'Who's Who' of suspects in Jewish terror cases and hate crimes in Israel".[2] Ben-Gvir is also the lawyer for Lehava, a far-right Israeli anti-assimilation organization which is active in opposing Jewish intermarriage with non-Jews,[14][15] and has sued the waqf.[16]

Ben-Gvir says that his work as a lawyer for far-right Jewish activists is motivated by a desire to help them, and not for money.[2]

Personal life

Ben-Gvir is married to Ayala Nimrodi, who grew up in Jerusalem and is a distant relative of Ofer Nimrodi, the former owner of the Maariv daily newspaper. The couple has five children, and they live as settlers in Hebron.[2]

References
  1. "Otzma Yehudit leaders attack Jewish Home over Amona". Israel National News. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  2. Maltz, Judy (2016). "The Lawyer for Jewish Terrorists Who Started Out by Stealing Rabin's Car Emblem". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  3. Magid, Jacob. "Otzma Yehudit candidate: Critics have to go back 30 years in order to attack us". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  4. Hagay Hacohen (31 July 2019). "Noam, Otzma Yehudit to run together in September elections". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  5. Hezki Baruch (1 August 2019). "Otzma Yehudit and Noam cancel joint run". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  6. Goldberg, Elisheva (5 November 2012). "'Kahane For Kids'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  7. "Inside radical right-wing group Lehava". Ynetnews. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  8. "The new Kach? Ben-Ari, Marzel, Ben Gvir form party". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  9. "פרק 8: סיבוב בחברון עם מרזל ובן גביר". ערוץ 7.
  10. "'The people expect vengeance'". Israel National News. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  11. "Netanyahu's deflection of his involvement with Otzma - ANALYSIS - Israel Elections - Jerusalem Post". www.jpost.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  12. "איתמר בן גביר לא יוכל להתמחות כעורך דין". וואלה! חדשות. 19 January 2011.
  13. http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/379/738.html
  14. "Police arrest head of anti-assimilation group Lehava". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  15. "Police blacklist LGBT parade protesters". Israel National News. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  16. "Are police afraid of Itamar Ben-Gvir?". Israel National News. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
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