Itamar Ben-Gvir

Itamar Ben-Gvir (born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who serves as Minister of National Security and leads the Otzma Yehudit party. Elected to the Knesset in 2021, he gained prominence through his party's focus on combating terrorism and crime, securing six seats in the 2022 elections as part of a right-wing alliance. In his ministerial role, Ben-Gvir has prioritized increasing police presence, expanding civilian firearm ownership for security, and enforcing stricter measures against illegal immigration and violent offenses, amid ongoing conflicts including the war against Hamas. His background includes early activism in ultranationalist youth groups and legal work defending Jewish settlers, though he has faced past convictions for incitement that were later mitigated to allow his bar admission and political rise. Ben-Gvir's tenure has been marked by efforts to reassert Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount and push for legislative changes like the death penalty for terrorists, reflecting his commitment to maximalist security policies in response to persistent threats.

He grew up in a secular Jewish family of Mizrahi descent, with his mother originating from Iraqi Kurdistan as a Kurdish Jew who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine as a teenager and had been involved with the Irgun Zionist paramilitary group in her youth before becoming a homemaker. His father worked at a gasoline company while occasionally writing.

Ben-Gvir became politically active during his teenage years amid the violence of the First Intifada (1987–1993), which radicalized him toward ultranationalist views emphasizing Jewish security and separation from Arabs. At age 14, around 1990, he joined the Kach movement after meeting Baruch Marzel, a key follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose teachings on expelling hostile Arabs from Israel and prioritizing Jewish sovereignty profoundly shaped his ideology. He participated in Kach's youth activities, including vandalism such as spray-painting anti-Arab slogans like "Kahane Was Right" and "Arabs Out," as well as recruiting others after Palestinian attacks.

By age 16, Ben-Gvir had become a regular at Kahane's Jewish Idea Yeshiva, where he immersed himself in Kahanist doctrine, which framed Arab presence in Israel as an existential threat requiring transfer or segregation to ensure Jewish dominance. He organized and hosted memorials for Kahane, assassinated in 1990, using them to publicize provocative messages, such as telling media outlets as a teenager that he aimed to "provoke" societal debate on these issues. His activism extended to Kahane Chai, Kach's successor group after Kach's 1994 ban following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, where he focused on postering, graffiti against perceived Arab and leftist foes, and demonstrations at sites of terrorist attacks to rally support for anti-Arab policies.