National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for Israel to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and encourage Palestinians to leave both Gaza and the West Bank, outlining his vision for a larger Israeli state in a rare interview with the American magazine TIME ahead of next week's national elections.
Ben-Gvir, who frequently speaks to Israeli news outlets, gave his first interview with foreign media since taking office in 2022. The leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party said Israel must expand its territory to ensure its survival and argued that encouraging Palestinian emigration would strengthen the country rather than deepen its international isolation.
"If Israel wants to continue to live and not be destroyed, we have to capture all of Gaza," Ben-Gvir told TIME. "We have to promote voluntary emigration. Gaza could be a Riviera. It’s a beautiful place. But we can’t have one Hamas member there."
The magazine described Ben-Gvir as a combative far-right figure who was once considered too extreme to serve in the IDF. It said he hopes to emerge from the elections with greater leverage over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, potentially making another Netanyahu-led government more dependent on far-right parties advocating Palestinian emigration and Israeli sovereignty over Gaza and the West Bank.
"I want Netanyahu to be prime minister. He’s a leader. I prefer him a million times over Eisenkot," Ben-Gvir said, referring to former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main political rival.
TIME described Ben-Gvir as wearing a white shirt and white skullcap and speaking in halting English. At one point, the minister reportedly beat his chest while explaining his political ambitions.
"What will really help Netanyahu be right wing is if I, Ben-Gvir, will be a senior minister and it’s a full right-wing government," he said.
'Gaza was always ours'
Ben-Gvir argued that Israel should seek to expand its territory, describing Gaza as historically belonging to the Jewish state.
"Gaza was always ours," he said. "Israel is a tiny country. We have to be wider, broader."
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
(Photo: Jack GUEZ / AFP)
He also portrayed Hamas as a threat extending far beyond Israel.
"Hamas are terrorists who don’t just want to destroy Israel. They want to destroy the whole world," he said.
His proposals would represent a dramatic departure from longstanding international positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which generally envision Gaza and the West Bank as part of a future Palestinian state.
Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, though it has continued to control key aspects of the territory's access and borders. Proposals to reestablish Israeli control and facilitate the departure of Palestinians have drawn international criticism, particularly over concerns that displacement under conditions of war and military occupation could amount to forced transfer.
TIME noted that Ben-Gvir offered no clear explanation of which countries would agree to accept large numbers of Palestinians or how their departure could be considered voluntary under the conditions he proposed.
Asked whether removing Palestinians from Gaza would deepen Israel's international isolation, Ben-Gvir rejected the concern.
"I think that the stronger we are, we won’t be isolated," he said. "Israel is isolated when it’s weak. If we help the population leave Gaza, we can be very strong."
Calls for Israeli sovereignty over West Bank
Ben-Gvir extended his proposals to the West Bank, territory Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and which Palestinians seek as the core of a future independent state.
He called for disarming Palestinian Authority security forces, accusing them of preparing for attacks against Israel.
"We need to take away the weapons for the Palestinian Authority," he said. "As of now, they are training in Jericho. They’re not training to direct traffic, are they? They want to do another Oct. 7."
The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under agreements reached with Israel in the 1990s. Its security forces have also engaged in security coordination with Israel, though the relationship has been strained by repeated violence and political disputes.
Ben-Gvir said he would encourage the millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank to leave while pursuing the extension of Israeli sovereignty over the territory.
"We want sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, where we also want voluntary emigration," he said, using the biblical names commonly employed in Israel for the West Bank.
"Just so we understand, we want voluntary emigration—not kicking anyone out. People will choose the option to leave."
The distinction between voluntary departure and forced displacement has become central to international criticism of proposals to relocate Palestinians, particularly when such plans are advanced alongside military operations or restrictions on civilian life.
Ben-Gvir defends Netanyahu over Oct. 7 failures
Ben-Gvir also defended Netanyahu against accusations that the prime minister bears primary responsibility for the security failures preceding Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
TIME described the Otzma Yehudit leader as one of the most prominent voices on the Israeli right seeking to shift responsibility for the failures away from Netanyahu and toward the military and intelligence establishment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(צילום: AP Photo/David Goldman)
"Even if he’s not perfect, and even if he made mistakes, and he indeed made mistakes, what screwed him up on Oct. 7 was our intelligence," Ben-Gvir said.
"The army, the intelligence, the Shin Bet. They are all to blame. Netanyahu is not clear of blame, but there are many people who are more at fault than him."
The Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas-led terrorists killed about 1,200 people and abducted roughly 250 others, exposed major failures in Israel's military preparedness and intelligence assessments, prompting demands for accountability across the country's political and security leadership.
Gadi Eisenkot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
(Photo: Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Ben-Gvir insisted that his support for Netanyahu was not unconditional.
"I’m not backing him; I’m not his crony on everything," he said. "I think he’s much better than Eisenkot. I want to be next to him. I want him to be very strong. I want to pull him to the right."
Defends Jewish prayer at Temple Mount
The interview also addressed Ben-Gvir's policies at Jerusalem's most sensitive religious site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
TIME reported that under Ben-Gvir's tenure, Israeli police have increasingly permitted Jewish worship at the site, describing the policy as a deliberate provocation toward the Arab world and noting condemnations by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
The hilltop compound is Judaism's holiest site and Islam's third-holiest. Under the longstanding arrangements governing the site, Muslims are permitted to pray there while non-Muslims may visit under restrictions but are not permitted to worship.
Changes to those arrangements have repeatedly triggered diplomatic disputes and fears of broader violence.
Ben-Gvir defended his approach as a matter of religious equality.
"It used to be an apartheid up there and Jews could not pray," he said. "That could not happen in any normal country. I returned justice to the Temple Mount."
Jordan, which retains a special custodial role over Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem under its peace treaty with Israel, has repeatedly opposed changes to the compound's established arrangements.
Ben-Gvir reflects on Kahanist past
TIME also examined Ben-Gvir's political history, including his longstanding admiration for Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the extremist Kach movement.
Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel, was elected to the Knesset in 1984. His party was later barred from Israeli elections because of its racist platform, and Kach was subsequently designated a terrorist organization by Israel.
Ben-Gvir told TIME that he continues to admire Kahane, although he said he no longer supports some of his mentor's most extreme positions.
"I went to his yeshiva. He did a lot of good things. He protected Jews. He was murdered sanctifying God’s name," Ben-Gvir said.
"Not everything that he did do I fully agree with. In the past, I thought we should kick out all the Arabs from the land of Israel. Now I think there can be some."
Ben-Gvir said his acceptance of Arab residents depended on their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state.
"I accept that there are some Arabs who live here. And I have no problem with part of them. Those who recognize the State of Israel as the Jewish state. Those who are loyal to the Jewish State," he said.
The magazine also revisited Ben-Gvir's association with Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli extremist who killed 29 Muslim worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Hebron in 1994.
According to previous reports cited by TIME, Ben-Gvir and his future wife, Ayala, visited Goldstein's grave on their first date. For years, Ben-Gvir displayed Goldstein's portrait in the living room of his home.
TIME also noted that Ben-Gvir became a lawyer representing settlers and Jewish activists accused of extremist violence and accumulated criminal convictions, including for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization.