Three far-right ministers quit Israel's cabinet over ceasefire deal

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - TEL AVIV — The party of Israel’s hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says its Cabinet ministers submitted their resignations from the government on Sunday in opposition to the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The departure of the Jewish Power party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government does not bring down the coalition or affect the ceasefire. But Ben-Gvir’s departure destabilizes the coalition.

It was the latest act of defiance by Ben-Gvir, the ultra-nationalist settler leader who transformed himself over the decades from an outlaw and provocateur into one of Israel’s most influential politicians.

The ceasefire will pause the war and free dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza. Ben-Gvir opposed the deal because it requires Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and to withdraw troops from Gaza’s southern border with Egypt — and because it leaves open the possibility of Hamas staying in power in Gaza.

Ahead of the resignation, he said the ceasefire was “reckless” and would “destroy all of Israel’s achievements.”

In his Cabinet post, Ben-Gvir oversaw the country’s police force. He used his influence to encourage Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and recently boasted that he had blocked past efforts to reach a ceasefire.

He also has paid multiple visits to Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site — the Al-Aqsa Mosque — including last month. In one such visit in July, he said he came to pray for the return of the hostages “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.”

The move, while legal, was seen as a provocation, violated a longstanding ban on Jewish prayer there, and threatened to disrupt months of sensitive negotiations. The site is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offences that include racism and supporting a terrorist organisation. As a teen, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.

Ben-Gvir gained notoriety in his youth as a follower of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane. He first became a national figure when he broke a hood ornament off then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car in 1995.

“We got to his car, and we’ll get to him too,” he said, just weeks before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Two years later, Ben-Gvir took responsibility for orchestrating a campaign of protests, including death threats, that forced Irish singer Sinead O’Connor to cancel a concert for peace in Jerusalem.

The political rise of Ben-Gvir was the culmination of years of efforts by the media-savvy lawmaker to gain legitimacy. But it also reflected a rightward shift in the Israeli electorate that brought his religious, ultra-nationalist ideology into the mainstream and diminished hopes for Palestinian independence.

Ben-Gvir is trained as a lawyer and gained recognition as a successful defence lawyer for extremist Jews accused of violence against Palestinians.

With a quick wit and cheerful demeanour, the outspoken Ben-Gvir also became a popular fixture in the media, paving his way to enter politics. He was first elected to parliament in 2021.

Ben-Gvir has called for deporting his political opponents, and in the past has encouraged police to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a tense Jerusalem neighbourhood, while brandishing a pistol. As national security minister, he has encouraged police to take a tough line against anti-government protesters.

Ben-Gvir secured his Cabinet post after 2022 elections that put Netanyahu and his far-right partners, including Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, into power.

“Over the last year I’ve been on a mission to save Israel,” Ben-Gvir told reporters before that election. “Millions of citizens are waiting for a real right-wing government. The time has come to give them one.”

Ben-Gvir has been a magnet of controversy throughout his tenure — encouraging the mass distribution of handguns to Jewish citizens, backing Netanyahu's contentious attempt to overhaul the country's legal system and frequently lashing out at U.S. leaders for perceived slights against Israel.

In May, Ben-Gvir criticised Joe Biden when the U.S. president threatened to withhold certain military aid if Israel invaded Rafah. Ben-Gvir, using a heart emoji in a post on the social media platform X, wrote that Hamas loves Biden.

Ben-Gvir's departure does not endanger the ceasefire, and Netanyahu still has a narrow parliamentary majority needed to keep power.

But if other hard-liners follow suit, Netanyahu's government could collapse, which would trigger early elections.

“It's probable that he has less survival time,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and analyst for Israeli public television station Kan News.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has said he will provide a political safety net to Netanyahu to ensure the government will not fall over the deal.

But such a partnership is unlikely to last beyond the ceasefire because the two men do not get along and would have a difficult time working together, said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel with the International Crisis Group. — Euronews