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Ben-Gvir encouraged illegal use of stun grenades during demonstrations – Israel News

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir encouraged the illegal use of stun grenades against protesters against the government's judicial reforms in March 2023, according to leaks from a WhatsApp group of close advisers to the minister published by Haaretz Police reporter Josh Breiner on Sunday afternoon.

Ben-Gvir visited Tel Aviv police headquarters during a protest on March 1, 2023, where stun grenades were used. According to reports, their authenticity could not be independently verified The Jerusalem PostBen-Gvir's chief of staff, Hanamel Dorfman, suggested the minister publish a photo of himself from the headquarters to mark the act. Ben-Gvir agreed and instructed his team to delete the image once the use of the grenades was confirmed.

A police officer named Meir Swissa was eventually charged with their illegal use. Ben-Gvir promoted Swissa after the indictment, but the attorney general's office declared the promotion illegal and revoked it.

Ben-Gvir is prohibited by law from giving operational orders to the police, and he is currently being prosecuted in the Supreme Court for precisely this act. The leaked messages support the claim that the minister intervened illegally. In the WhatsApp discussion mentioned above, an adviser warned Ben-Gvir not to appear to have used the grenades due to legal restrictions. The minister instead chose to heed the advice of another adviser, Nevo Cohen, who wrote: “From now on you must show authority. A change in policy.”

The leaks reported by Haaretz also show that Ben-Gvir's decision to remove the then Tel Aviv district police chief, Ami Eshed, from his position was directly related to what the minister believed to be Eshed's soft handling of the protests, which included repeated roadblocks in Ayalon Highway belonged.

BEFORE THE inauguration of the new government, Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir talk in the Knesset plenum (Source: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lost a court challenge on Sunday to prevent messages from internal WhatsApp groups from being broadcast on a central Israeli television channel in an episode titled “Ben-Gvir's Secrets” on Sunday evening.

Ben-Gvir told confidants he did not believe Hamas could be defeated in Gaza

Video clips from the episode, broadcast on Channel 13's Hamekor (The Source) program hosted by journalist Raviv Drucker, show Ben-Gvir telling his confidants that he did not believe Hamas could be defeated in Gaza . This contradicted his fiery rhetoric since the outbreak of war.

Other quotes from an internal WhatsApp group published in Haaretz showed that, contrary to his denials, Ben-Gvir was constantly advised by right-wing extremist Bentzi Gopstein on his ministry's matters.

Gopstein was convicted of racist incitement against Israeli Arabs and excluded from running for office due to his racist positions.

The source of the leaks remains unclear. Notably, the revelations came shortly after the arrest of a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegedly leaking top-secret information to foreign media, who previously served as Ben-Gvir's spokesman and was part of his inner circle.

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Before the court hearing on Ben-Gvir's demand to prevent the broadcast of the program, the national security minister accused the “left-wing media” of “trying to harm him” because of his role in passing a law allowing expulsion from Israel was successful by family members of terrorists and “a number of laws that we are passing, reforms that we are implementing in prisons, [and] firearms reform.

“Just like in the United States, they are trying to do harm [US President-Elect Donald] Trump, and also in Israel they are trying to harm me,” Ben-Gvir said.



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