Ben-Gvir Seeks Defense Post, Pledges Push for Palestinian Emigration

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he will seek the defense portfolio in the next government and would make the encouragement of Palestinian emigration from Gaza and the West Bank a central priority if he takes the post.

Speaking from a podium in Jerusalem, Ben-Gvir said he intended to demand the position of Minister of Defense in the coming term. Outlining the changes he would pursue, he said a Defense Ministry under his leadership would treat a strategic plan to promote "voluntary migration" in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria — the Israeli term for the West Bank — as a top priority.

"In order to live in this country, we must encourage voluntary migration," he said, claiming that more than 60 percent of Palestinians want to leave. He added that many people in the West Bank shared that desire.

Ben-Gvir also said he would move to disarm the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, describing it as a "ticking time bomb" that funds and supports terrorism and is, in his words, training to carry out another attack on the scale of October 7, 2023.

The remarks are the latest in a series of hardline statements by the minister. In August, he publicly advocated killing "30 to 40" people in Gaza each night during a podcast conversation with Rom Braslavski, a former Gaza-held hostage. The two were discussing Israel's recovery from the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticised what he described as Israel's recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

His comments come amid diplomatic movement on the conflict. US President Donald Trump's latest proposal would see Hamas gradually give up its weapons while Israeli forces halt their attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in population centres. More than 560,000 Israeli settlers, who hold Israeli citizenship, also live in the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has overseen a surge in settlement construction there.