Ben-Gvir Proposes Deportation for Anti-State Activists

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM — Far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir gave Israeli voters a sample of the incendiary rhetoric they can expect from him in the coming days of the election campaign in an interview on Tuesday.

“When we form the government, I will promote the Deportation Law, which will deport anyone who acts against the State of Israel or IDF soldiers,” Ben-Gvir told Army Radio. “Those who throw stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers will be deported from here. Those who work against the state like [Joint List MK] Ofer Cassif will be deported. Maybe to Europe, they need working hands there,” Ben-Gvir said.

Jews would also be punished for such offenses but not by deportation. “A Jew who throws stones at IDF soldiers will sit in prison for many years [in Israel],” he said.

Ben-Gvir also believes that Jewish violence against Arabs is not terrorism. He said that he was relying on precedent to make this claim. In a petition to knock down the house of the Jewish murderers of Israeli-Arab teen Muhammad Abu Khadir in 2014 – after terrorists kidnapped three Israeli teens and killed them, which eventually led to Operation Protective Edge – three judges ruled that it was not an act of terrorism. This proves that Jewish violence against Arabs is not terrorism, Ben-Gvir asserted.

Meretz candidate Zehava Galon responded in kind: “Racial laws? A Deportation Law and singling out traitors? … It is time to expel Ben-Gvir from the Knesset.”

On Monday, Ben Gvir announced that he is leaving the Religious Zionism party to run alone at the head of his Otzma Yehudit party, blaming the split on party leader Bezalel Smotrich for allegedly not negotiating in good faith about the apportionment of slots on the electoral list.

Recent polls show Religious Zionism getting 10-11 seats in the November elections. A Channel 13 poll released in mid-July found that if Ben-Gvir would head the party list instead of Smotrich, it would win 13 seats.