Ben-Gvir: Next political assassination is being planned

Last week, police and the Shin Bet arrested a suspect who was planning to assassinate Ben-Gvir. Lapid denied the threat, calling the national security minister a “Tiktok clown.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Monday that there is credible danger of an imminent political assassination due to the Left’s upheaval over the government’s plans for judicial reform.

Speaking on Israel Radio’s “This Morning” program, the minister said he has received credible intelligence information that some protestors are planning the unthinkable.

“There are anarchists on the left who crossed the red lines long ago and are planning to assassinate me or the prime minister,” he said.

He hastened to add that it was only a small minority, saying, “God forbid, it’s forbidden to generalize and most of them are good and moral people, but there are people among them who are planning the next murder.”

The anarchists, however, “must be dealt with,” he added, because while “demonstrators have the right to demonstrate… We shouldn’t hug anarchists. I listen to those who cry from the depths of the heart, but not to those who shout ‘Ben Gvir is dead.’”

He also referred to the demonstration Thursday outside a Tel Aviv salon where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, was getting her hair done as “an attempted lynching.” Hundreds of anti-government protestors gathered outside the salon and screamed epithets as she hunkered down inside. It took three hours until hundreds of policemen came to part the crowd and ensure her safety so she could leave.

Sara Netanyahu wrote on Instagram that “the terrible incident…could have ended in murder,” and Ben-Gvir told the interviewer that he has seen intelligence information backing up her claim.

Leaders of the protest rebuffed the accusation, saying that she had not been in danger.

In the event, a ministerial team voted Sunday to transfer protection of the prime minister’s and her two sons, Avner (28) and Yair (31) from the police to the Shabak as a result of the incident.

Ben-Gvir also asked the Opposition the previous day to act more responsibly because of the danger of extreme words turning into action.

In a Sunday Knesset committee meeting debating a bill to amend police powers, he said that “the incitement and the harsh words that are said during the demonstrations…has to stop and be stopped.”

The MKs, he continued, must “calm the public,” because “every day I hear of another warning about the next murder, of myself or, God forbid, the prime minister or other ministers, and I say to you:  ‘Wise ones, be careful with your words.'”

The Hebrew-language N12 news site reported Monday that an unnamed senior police official rejected Ben-Gvir’s assertions.

“We were amazed to read the minister’s words; police intelligence has no information that indicates the intention of protesters to murder anyone,” the source said. “And according to a check we made with the equivalents in the Shin Bet, they don’t have such information either.”

The report noted that it is not in the national security minister’s purview to receive the internal security agency’s reports.

Calling Ben-Gvir “a Tiktok clown,” Opposition head Yair Lapid accused him, after the radio interview of lying outright, saying, “This morning he’s already begun inventing ‘intelligence documents’ that don’t exist.”

“It’s not only ridiculous, it’s also dangerous,” he continued, and called on the prime minister to “fire Ben-Gvir before it’s too late.”

Last week, police and the Shin Bet arrested a suspect who was planning to assassinate Ben-Gvir on the Temple Mount during the upcoming Ramadan holiday.