Ben Gvir's Visit to Mixed Arab-Jewish City of Ramle Draws Cheers and Condemnation

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir toured the market in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Ramle this week, drawing both enthusiastic supporters and open hostility from residents, The Times of Israel reported. The visit landed in the middle of a campaign in which Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party has been gaining in the polls even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and other coalition partners slip.

Supporters crowded around the minister for selfies and offered him food as he moved through the stalls. Critics saw it differently, arguing that a politician who has spent years promoting hardline rhetoric about Palestinians has no business staging a friendly walkabout in a city built on coexistence between Jewish and Arab residents.

Ben Gvir has long drawn international criticism over dehumanizing language about Palestinians and a past that included displaying a photograph of Baruch Goldstein, who carried out the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, in his home. As national security minister he has pushed to tighten conditions for Palestinian prisoners and backed capital-punishment legislation for terror convictions, while his ministry's handling of policing around settler violence has drawn its own scrutiny.

Political analyst Liron Lavie described Ben Gvir's rising support as part of a broader global pattern of far-right politicians building loyal followings through simple, emotionally direct messaging, pointing to his effectiveness on platforms like TikTok as a key part of that appeal.