Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks during the Israel Police Independence Day ceremony at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh, April 20, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Addressing Netanyahu directly, Ben-Gvir urged him to declare that Abbas has “no immunity.”
Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday called for “targeted eliminations” of senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and the arrest of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, during remarks at the opening of his Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly faction meeting.
Ben-Gvir’s comments came in response to a new UN Security Council initiative that includes language describing a potential “path to a Palestinian state.”
The proposal, he said, represents a dangerous revival of international efforts to promote Palestinian statehood.
“In recent days, we are witnessing the return of discourse surrounding the establishment of a Palestinian state… Today it may receive an additional push in the proposal being raised in the UN Security Council,” Ben-Gvir said.
He rejected the idea entirely, declaring the Palestinian national movement “an invented people” whose founders, he claimed, seek the destruction of Israel.
He cited that those that carried out October 7 Hamas-led massacre are deeply tied to the belief of the destruction of Israel and that ongoing PA payments to convicted attackers as proof that a Palestinian state will only continue to threaten Israel’s existence.
Ben-Gvir also pointed to PA practices such as naming public squares after terrorists and alleged Holocaust denial, saying these demonstrate systemic incitement and glorification of violence.
Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, Ben-Gvir urged him to declare that Mahmoud Abbas, 90, has “no immunity.”
“If the UN acknowledges this invented state, you, Mr. Prime Minister, must order targeted eliminations of the Authority’s leaders, who are terrorists in every respect,” he said.
“And you must order the arrest of Abbas. We have a cell prepared for him in the prisons, and he will receive conditions like all the terrorists in the jails.”
Ben-Gvir concluded by calling on Netanyahu to “stop Abbas,” saying he personally “will take care of him” once in custody.
For Israel, however, a return to the negotiating table represents the most problematic outcome.
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