Ben Gvir Accuses Netanyahu of Pledging to EU That He'll Be Shut Out of Next Government
The far-right minister says he has learned of messages from the prime minister's office promising European officials his exclusion from any future coalition, a claim Likud denies.
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By Israel Politics Post Staff·Published
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attends a press conference ahead of Israel's general election · Source: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, via The Times of Israel
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of privately promising European Union officials that his Otzma Yehudit party would be excluded from Israel's next government, telling a Jerusalem press conference that he had "received information about messages" sent from Netanyahu's office to EU foreign ministers to that effect, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Likud denied the claim, saying every "Zionist party" would be invited to coalition talks under its standard guidelines.
The accusation follows Netanyahu's own public statement that Ben Gvir will not receive the Defense Ministry or the national security portfolio in any government formed after the October 27 election, a post Ben Gvir has openly sought as the price of his party's coalition support.
The dispute landed alongside several other flashpoints in the campaign's final stretch. Former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef issued a religious ruling against supporting Otzma Yehudit, citing Jewish law prohibitions tied to Ben Gvir's visits to the Temple Mount, while Netanyahu and Smotrich separately pressed the newly formed Charedi Public party to withdraw over fears it would fall short of the electoral threshold. Separately, the Arab-led Ra'am party said campaign billboards falsely linking it to LGBTQ causes violated election disclosure laws.
With the vote one week away, the clash underscores how unsettled Netanyahu's coalition math remains even within his own ideological camp.
