Some of the alleged information that was set to air was Itamar Ben-Gvir’s private admissions about the impossibility of completely defeating Hamas.
Israel’s Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has failed to win a Supreme Court appeal that would have prevented an investigative video about him from being released.
The report quotes directly from private WhatsApp groups that he was a part of and revealed a number of key pieces of information about how he has operated under the current Israeli government.
Israel’s Channel 13 was set to broadcast a report that publishes texts, videos and recordings from a confidential WhatsApp group that Israel’s extremist minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was active on.
Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker’s investigative piece was advertised publicly through a promo video that was published by the TV station, triggering a legal complaint by the Israeli minister to prevent the channel from broadcasting the piece.
However, when the case reached the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday, it was thrown out and the expose was allowed to go ahead, this followed an evaluation of the entire report transcript by the Israeli lower court, finding that it is “entirely related to the public activities of the minister”.
Entitled ‘Secrets of the Senior Minister’, the report claims to have gotten ahold of thousands of communications, which Ben-Gvir claims were obtained illegally.
Some of the alleged information that was set to air was Itamar Ben-Gvir’s private admissions about the impossibility of completely defeating Hamas, yet the content of the expose was primarily focused on illegal and unethical decisions made by the Security Minister, specifically as it relates to Israeli citizens.
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The leaks showed that in March of 2023, when hundreds of thousands of Israelis were demonstrating against the proposed legal system reforms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir had encouraged the use of banned stun grenades against the demonstrators.
To many Israelis, the piece was controversial because the Security Minister had encouraged the use of such force against Jewish Israelis, while the use of such tactics against Palestinians is commonplace.
Interestingly enough, right as the expose was set to air, a new story broke about an alleged Hamas plot to assassinate Ben-Gvir. The claims broke on the Israeli ‘Walla’ website, regarding an apparent foiling of a Hamas cell’s plot to breach the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in order to kill the Israeli minister and his son.
Apparently, these conclusions were reached after four men from the city of al-Khalil – with alleged ties to Hamas – confessed under interrogations by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
However, the Shin Bet is renowned for collecting forced confessions via torture so no human rights group or international bodies take these testimonies seriously. This is the third story that has emerged of a plot to kill Ben-Gvir but has not been substantiated by any trustworthy material evidence.
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Nonetheless, the revelations about Ben-Gvir have led to calls that he be expelled from his position that ensures he rules over domestic security matters. It is unlikely that he will be forced out of government, as such a decision could lead to the collapse of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
In addition to this, the Otzma Yehudit Party leader was already a convicted felon prior to assuming his position in office and had received more than 50 charges in Israeli courts.
Furthermore, the extremist Security Minister is not new to attempts to censor information that he doesn’t like.
As recently as mid-October, the Israeli police were sent to inform the director of Al-Saraya Theater in Yaffa, Mahmoud Abu Arisha, that screening a documentary film named ‘Lyd was not permitted. Why?
Because Itamar Ben-Gvir had invented a new rule that a permit must be applied for to air such a documentary. Clearly, this was just an excuse to stop any content being shown to Palestinian citizens of Israel, about the “Palestinian narrative”.
In November of 2023, it was revealed in an investigative piece published by Israel’s Channel 12 that the Security Minister had ordered the police not to enforce the law on illegal West Bank settlers, enabling them to go on rampages and commit pogroms against defenseless Palestinian communities.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
Excellent article.
Gvir is a scumbag through and through.
He’s the kid that always got beat up at recess and everyone picked on him in school. He’s a danger to society, like a rabid animal.
He is confident in the knowledge that He is going nowhere,no matter what comes His way,Netanyahu need Him,His thinking ,actions and the support He has from the settler ensure He is permanent fixture certainly for the near future.