Today, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (B’Tselem) denounced the threats of legislator Itamar Ben Gvir to expel Arabs who question the state’s policies.
He cautioned that history shows that such statements should be taken seriously.
Orly Noy, a member of B’Tselem’s board of directors, in an article published in the Middle East Eye news portal.
During an interview this week with Army Radio, the leader of the Jewish Power party announced that if he was part of the next government, which comes out from the polls on November 1, he would work to pass a law stripping away “action against Israel” and then expel them.
Noe deplored that Ben Gvir’s interlocutors apparently tried to present his ideas as illusory and absurd, but said that given the country’s reality and its historical policies toward the Palestinian people, the threats “are far from being just a theoretical exercise.”
The activist noted that this deputy is the youth coordinator of the extremist Kach organization founded by the radical Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocates the expulsion of all Arabs from the country.
Noi said Israel no longer denies the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948, but rather has turned that strategy into a role model.
In this sense, he referred to the recent threats of deportation by MK Yisrael Katz, a member of the Likud party, headed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He stressed that these comments confirm that “the Israeli political discourse in general considers the mass deportation of Palestinian citizens of Israel as another option on the table.”
Last June, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahane said he would like to press a button to expel the 1.9 million Arabs living in the country.
Ben Gvir is known for his actions against the Palestinians, which are criticized even in Israel.
This year it set up an office in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, sparking a new wave of clashes after residents’ protests.
Ben Gvir kept a picture of Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, in his living room for years.
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