National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Monday that Israel should arrest Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas if the United Nations advances a plan connected to renewed international discussions about a Palestinian state, adding that “a cell is ready for him.”
Ben-Gvir made the remarks at the opening of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly meeting. He said recent days have seen “a return of the discourse on establishing a Palestinian state,” and warned that it could gain additional momentum if the UN Security Council adopts an initiative calling for a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood.
2 View gallery
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
(Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli, Amit Shabi)
“It is forbidden for the invented people called the Palestinian people to have a state,” Ben-Gvir said. He accused the Palestinian Authority of paying salaries to terrorists, naming public squares after “arch-murderers,” denying the Holocaust and “educating toward the murder of Jews.”
Directing his comments at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir said Israel should declare that Abbas has no immunity. “If the UN recognizes this, you need to order targeted killings of senior PA officials. You need to order the arrest of Abu Mazen,” he said, using Abbas’ nickname. “We have a cell ready for him. He will receive the same conditions as any other terrorist.”
Meanwhile, Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman criticized reported U.S. deliberations on selling advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Liberman called the move “dangerous from every angle” and said Netanyahu is pursuing normalization with Saudi Arabia “in exchange for a liquidation sale of the State of Israel.”
Liberman said selling F-35s to Saudi Arabia or Turkey would “change the entire balance of power in the Middle East” and could limit Israel’s ability to act against potential Saudi nuclear facilities. He warned that such an arrangement would constitute both tacit acceptance of a Palestinian state and a severe strategic setback for Israel, saying it was being done “with Netanyahu’s full coordination and approval.”