Israeli officials in the government coalition criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for “embarrassing the government”, accusing him of causing a global crisis for Israel with his foolish statements.
One of the ministers said that tens of millions of social media followers do not agree with the racist statements that Ben-Gvir made on Wednesday, which showed Israel as an apartheid state.
Ben Gvir said his right to safe movement in the West Bank was more important than the rights of Arabs to free movement.
The US administration and the European Union also condemned the Minister’s statement.
During an interview with Channel 12, Ben-Gvir was asked about the West Bank and his failure to combat violence and crime in Arab society.
“My right, and my wife’s and my children’s right, to get around on the roads in Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement for Arabs,” he responded, adding: “That’s the reality. That’s the truth. My right to life comes before their right to movement.”
The boycott Israel movements launched campaigns against Ben-Gvir and various far-right officials who made similar statements or supported apartheid behavior.
Palestinian-US model Bella Hadid slammed Ben-Gvir’s comments and posted the video clip from the interview and shared it on Instagram with her 60 million followers.
"In no place, no time, especially in 2023, should one life be more valuable than another's," said Hadid in the post. "Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture, or pure hatred."
Ben Gvir's supporters tried to underestimate Hadid's position, saying that she is the daughter of an Arab father from Nazareth, who uses her social media platforms to attack Israel constantly.
MSNBC broadcaster Mehdi Hasan echoed Hadid’s statement, saying: “A top Israeli minister just openly admitted to apartheid.”
Social media was packed with similar positions from all over the world.
-Ongoing protest
The Arab public in Israel continued to protest the escalation of crime and began preparing for a strike in schools and local and municipal councils next week.
They stressed the government is not serious about combating crime and arresting its organizations.
A survey published by the Hebrew newspaper Maariv revealed that there was a significant difference between the positions of Arab and Jewish citizens towards the government's policy regarding crime in Arab society.
Seventy percent of the Arab respondents and 40 percent of the Jewish respondents believe the government does not want to deal with crime in Arab society.
About 39 percent of all respondents believed the government wants to fight crime, but it is not succeeding.
Almost 77 percent of all respondents said they fear that crime in the Arab community will spread to the Jewish community, and 59 percent of the Arabs, compared to 37 percent of the Jews, said they were terrified of this scenario.
A total of 46 percent of the Arabs said the government was responsible for the increase in crime, 18 percent blamed the police, and four percent considered the Arab society to be violent.
On the other hand, 27 percent of the Jews, including 36 percent of the voters of the right-wing coalition parties, considered that the increase in crime is due to the violent Arab society, and 23 percent said that the reason is the government's weak performance.
