Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the extremist who on on June 7, 2024 called for starving Palestinians, announcing, “In our opinion Israel should withhold fuel from Gaza and reduce the humanitarian [aid] that enters,” has announced he will tour the United States, starting April 25.
Ben-Gvir resigned from the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government Jan.19 when Israel announced that it would participate in a ceasefire with Hamas, and re-entered the Netanyahu government on March 18.
This time, Haaretz, in an April 15 article, “Ben-Gvir To Bring Far-Right Settler, Once Jailed for Spying on the Israeli Army, to U.S. Delegation,” reported that Ben-Gvir is bringing with him a violent Akiva Hacohen settler from the West Bank Yitzhar settlement. Hacohen and other Zionist activists reportedly established an “outpost warroom,” aimed at gathering information on Israeli army movements in the occupied territories to prevent the evacuation of illegal settler outposts.
Haaretz reports that “the information that Hacohen collected was used to prepare ‘intelligence reports’ whose purpose was to subvert military operations to dismantle illegal outposts in the northern West Bank. In one instance in December 2011, a bus full of right-wing activists arrived at the [IDF’s] Ephraim Territorial Brigade base next to the settlement of Kedumim; the group broke into the base and rioted.” This became known as the “Spies Affair.” Hacohen was sentenced to only three months in jail. Overall, he has accumulated nine convictions.
Ben-Gvir stated that he plans to meet with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, but Haaretz states it has learned that Noem does not plan to meet with Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir will be visiting New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
