Lawmaker draws gun in verbal clash with Arab guards

“This might have ended in murder,” Ben-Gvir said after filing a police complaint, saying he was defending himself.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir drew his gun in a heated verbal clash with Arab security guards at a Tel Aviv parking lot Tuesday night and called the police, who arrested two men for threatening the Knesset member.

In a partial video clip, the right-wing MK can be seen holding his personal weapon by his side while yelling offscreen, “You wanted to hit me? You won’t threaten me.”

He then walks away, holstering the handgun, as the guard can be heard saying, “I told you not to park here.”

Ben-Gvir then moves back towards the speaker after a man says, “You’ve been filmed,” and puts his hand on his holster, saying, “You’re threatening me, I’ll take care of you.” Benjy Gopstein of the anti-assimilation and anti-Arab group Lehava, who had accompanied Ben-Gvir, can be seen holding up his phone and filming the scene.

After repeating several more times that the guard had threatened him, the guard can be heard calling Ben-Gvir and Gopstein liars.

By the time the police arrived, the guards had left the scene but they were soon located and the officers took them in for questioning.

“This might have ended in murder, Ben-Gvir said after filing the police complaint. After he had parked his car at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds’ underground lot, two men “started cursing” him, he said.

“I answered they should shut up and then they came towards me intimidatingly while threatening, ‘We will kill you,’ ‘We will f**k you,’ and ‘We will beat you.’ At this point I felt threatened and pulled out a weapon, I aimed down, it calmed them down for a bit.”

“I saw before me two Arabs who were supposed to provide security, with hatred in their eyes who cursed and threatened to hurt me and kill me,” he added, saying that he expects the police to file an indictment. The two “belong in jail, it would be safer for the public.”

The police did not arrest the pair as of this writing, saying merely that the incident was under investigation and that everyone involved had given their testimonies.

Ben-Gvir said he has been threatened dozens of times in the past half a year, both online and in personal messages, “and there were also attempted attacks that have been investigated by the police.”

Ben-Gvir’s Religious Zionism party reacted angrily to the incident.

“When MKs in the left-wing coalition receive [threatening] messages on their phone, they receive security, and when MK Ben Gvir is attacked, there are those who try to blame him. This hypocrisy is unbearable,” the party said in a statement. “This is a serious matter that cannot be ignored.”

Arab IsraelisIsrael PoliceItamar Ben-GvirLehavaReligious Zionism