Defense Minister Yoav Gallant assailed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday, in the wake of a letter by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar on Thursday that accused Ben Gvir of helping cause “indescribable damage” to Israel by encouraging Jewish extremists in the West Bank and elsewhere.
“In the face of Minister Ben Gvir’s irresponsible actions that endanger Israel’s national security and create internal division in the nation, the head of the Shin Bet and his people are carrying out their duties and warning of the grave consequences of these acts,” Gallant wrote on X.
In Bar’s letter, sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant, and several other government ministers, the Shin Bet chief warned that radical settlers did not fear consequences for their actions, emboldening them to “terror” against Palestinians.
Extremists have been encouraged by light-handed treatment of crimes and “a sense of secret backing” from police, Bar wrote. The Israel Police, under the far-right Ben Gvir, has repeatedly been accused of turning a blind eye to violence and intimidation by settler extremists.
Following Bar’s warning, Ben Gvir, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, reportedly stormed out of that night’s cabinet meeting, after demanding the Shin Bet chief be fired.
Responding to Gallant’s post backing Bar on Friday, Ben Gvir responded, “You promised to return Lebanon to the Stone Age. So far you’re returning the north to the Stone Age. Instead of attacking me on Twitter, attack Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
The national security minister was referring to threats Gallant has made on multiple occasions of the consequences of all-out war, amid Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks on Israeli communities and military posts along the border since October.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly called for an all-out war against Lebanon and continues to demand that Netanyahu include him in major decision-making relating to the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Ben Gvir visited the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the Golan Heights, and called on Israel to “attack” and “launch a campaign” against Hezbollah, adding, “The State of Israel needs to respond in the most unequivocal, clearest way.”
In his letter to the prime minister and other members of the government on Thursday, Bar said Jewish terror “is transforming from the acts of few to the actions of hundreds.”
West Bank settler extremism is encouraged by “the loss of fear of administrative detention, due to the conditions they get in prison and the money given to them upon their release from MKs, along with legitimization and praise, alongside delegitimization of security forces.
“Those leading this phenomenon seek to bring the system to a total loss of control,” he added.
He said that beyond the danger to the rule of law, Israel’s international standing, and its security, the issue was “a major stain on Judaism and us all.”
Extremist settlers have repeatedly rioted in West Bank Palestinian towns since last year, causing damage to property, injuring and, in a few cases, even killing Palestinians.
While four Jewish suspects were detained on Thursday in connection with a riot in Jit last week where Palestinian authorities said a man was killed, indictments in such cases are rare and convictions even more so. This led the US and other Western countries to begin sanctioning Israeli settler extremists earlier this year.
In his letter, Bar also sounded the alarm on Ben Gvir’s recent visit to the Temple Mount on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, when Jewish visitors were filmed praying and prostrating themselves, in violation of both police instructions and the status quo governing the compound, the holiest site in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam.
“Jews were filmed praying here, this is my policy,” Ben Gvir said at the time, rejecting Netanyahu’s assertion that the rules had not changed.
Ben Gvir reportedly said Thursday that Bar was responsible for what happened on October 7.
Addressing Netanyahu, the national security minister said, “I told you, I won’t be part of a racist government that doesn’t allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount,” and accused Bar of “surrendering to Hamas on the Temple Mount,” according to the Ynet news site.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.