National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Monday that he wants to build a “luxurious” neighborhood for Israel Police officers over the ruins of the Gaza Strip, earning applause from high-ranking officials at a Rosh Hashanah toast in Beit Shemesh.
“We will finish the mission, occupy Gaza,” the far-right leader asserted Monday morning to the crowd, seated in a large auditorium in the city’s National Police Academy.
Once that is achieved, “we want to establish a neighborhood of police officers also in Gaza,” he said forcefully. “On the seashore, all [will be] perfect,” he added to a smattering of applause.
He described the envisioned neighborhood as “luxurious,” with high-rise buildings
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted his government is not pursuing the resettlement of Gaza, despite Ben Gvir and others in his cabinet vocally pushing for it.
“The time has come to settle — Jewish settlement, the time has come to encourage voluntary emigration [of Gazans], the time has come to bring the death penalty for terrorists,” Ben Gvir continued.
Ben Gvir last week vowed to push forward with proposed legislation to implement the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists following a deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem. It was slated for discussion Tuesday morning in the Knesset National Security Committee.
The ultranationalist leader arrived nearly an hour late to the toast Monday morning, following reported tensions between him and Police Commissioner Danny Levy over the issue of police promotions.
The annual ceremony’s main event — the bestowing of new ranks on senior police officers — did not take place this year due to the minister’s reported refusal to sign off on Levy’s appointments, a frequent source of friction for the minister and the top cop.
However, both men denied there was any daylight between them in their respective speeches. “They are trying to drive a wedge between me and the commissioner, but it won’t help them,” Ben Gvir declared to the crowd.
Levy, for his part, joked that he had gone to bed after watching the EuroBasket finals Sunday night and “woke up to the media talking about some big conflict” between him and the minister. He insisted that “there is no conflict, there is no debate, there is no drama.”
He said that he and Ben Gvir were in the process of reviewing upwards of 170 officers for promotion, and chose not to hold a promotions ceremony because of the sheer quantity of appointments the two sought to make.
Among those whose ranks were left unapproved by Ben Gvir was Carmel Region police chief Merav Wagner, who was meant to become the head of the police’s Operations Division and receive the rank of assistant commissioner, Ynet reported Sunday night. Wagner is reportedly a close associate of Levy.
In July, Ben Gvir circulated a letter against the promotion of a police investigator involved in one of Netanyahu’s corruption trials, and has been blocking her advancement since at least early June, also contrary to the wishes of Levy.
The issue of Superintendent Rinat Saban’s promotion found its way into a parallel power struggle between Ben Gvir and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in light of a compromise agreement that the minister signed with the legal official intended to curb his interference in police promotions.
Critics, legal experts and the attorney general have accused Ben Gvir of using his authority in a manner that constitutes illegitimate intervention in the force, using promotions as incentives or punishments to influence police decision-making and advance his political agenda.