Parts of the pro-Israel lobby are calling for the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir to be ousted from government, after he called for the mass murder of Palestinians. So what will they do when he isn’t?
By Prem Thakker, reposted from Zeteo, August 18, 2026
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, just called for Israel to kill 30 or 40 Palestinians every day, arguing there are people in Gaza who “shouldn’t live” and are “not even people.”
Pro-Israel groups in the U.S. are condemning the man, saying he doesn’t represent the Israeli government, or its policies – even though he is literally the top national security official in Israel. Meanwhile, his calls for indiscriminate killing would be less deadly than how Israel has conducted its ongoing genocide in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, which the same groups have defended and denied.
Ben-Gvir made the vicious comments in a podcast published Saturday.
“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister,” Ben-Gvir said, regarding Israel’s somewhat reduced operations in Gaza, in light of the thus-far failing “peace plan” brokered by President Donald Trump. ”I think we should carry out targeted assassinations in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night,” he continued. “Not just those who pose an immediate threat. No, there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”
Ben-Gvir made the remarks on the ‘October 8’ podcast hosted by a former Israeli soldier released from Palestinian Islamic Jihad captivity. He additionally called for the mass forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and Israeli settlement of the Strip.
“I see all of Gaza as ours,” Ben-Gvir said, calling for settlements “throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”
His genocidal comments generated backlash around the world, including from pro-Israel groups.
Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), which supports pro-Israel candidates in Democratic primaries, said: “Ben-Gvir’s call to kill 30-40 people in Gaza nightly and his claim that they are ‘not even people’ is heinous and indefensible.” The group added: “As he says, this is not Israeli government policy. Prime Minister Netanyahu should reiterate that point and expel him from the government.”
DMFI was founded in 2019 and has played an active role in U.S. politics, seeking to offer a softer Democratic-focused counterpart to the more well-known and increasingly unpopular pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. But just like AIPAC, DMFI’s super PAC has poured millions of dollars into U.S. elections, vying to keep Democrats in line with the goal of ultimately unconditional support for Israel.
The American Jewish Committee, a massive pro-Israel group, condemned Ben-Gvir, too, though in a slightly more vague manner.
“AJC vehemently rejects the continued inflammatory statements made by Itamar Ben-Gvir. His calls for Jewish settlement in Gaza and the so-called ‘voluntary emigration’ of Palestinians are irresponsible and disconnected from reality,” the group said. “Ben-Gvir’s statements do not reflect the policy of the State of Israel and should be condemned by all who care about Israel’s future.”
Even the pro-Israel Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen, who was one of just seven Democrats who in April voted with Republicans to oppose blocking some weapon sales to Israel, condemned Ben-Gvir.
“These comments are horrific and completely indefensible. Anyone advocating for acts of violence against innocent civilians should not be in an official government position,” she said Sunday. “I believe Ben-Gvir must resign, and I urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to denounce these remarks and reaffirm to the world that this is not the government’s position.”
There are several throughlines between these statements. One, the obvious point that Ben-Gvir’s comments are out of line. “Heinous and indefensible,” DMFI says. “Inflammatory” and “disconnected from reality,” says AJC. “Horrific and completely indefensible,” Rosen says.
Another is the argument that his comments don’t align with Israeli policy. DMFI insists that “this is not Israeli government policy.”
And finally, the statements’ each share some form of demand. DMFI calls for Ben-Gvir’s expulsion, and for Netanyahu to make clear that Ben-Gvir’s comments don’t reflect Israeli policy. Rosen has a mirrored demand (slightly softer in calling for Ben-Gvir’s resignation, rather than expulsion). AJC was less pointed, but called on “all who care about Israel’s future” to condemn Ben-Gvir.
In each statement, then, are subtleties that warrant scrutiny.
Other than for a brief two-month gap, Ben-Gvir has served as the top official overseeing Israel’s national police force and prison system since 2022. His latest comments are but a small drop in the bucket of horrific, racist, genocidal comments he has made and actions he has taken.
Even before he officially took on his ministerial role, as leader of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party, Ben-Gvir pulled out his gun and yelled “if they throw stones, you shoot them!” during confrontations in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah that were sparked by land disputes and evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. The comments reflected his campaign platform of loosening open-fire rules, to justify shooting Palestinians.
Ben-Gvir’s record since includes the following:
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Creating a functional militia to target “Arab unrest” without any legal oversight
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Repeatedly calling to expand Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank
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Saying, “There is no such thing as a ‘Palestinian people”
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Overseeing horrific and worsening prison conditions for Palestinian detainees
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Mocking hungry Palestinian detainees and undermining their ability to seek healthcare
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Calling on Israel to “crush Gaza with all our might”
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Handing out thousands of guns to Israeli extremist settlers in the West Bank (settlers who have killed and brutalized Americans, too)
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Being filmed just months ago crudely harassing international Gaza flotilla activists, including Americans, who were viciously abused inside the Israeli prison system he oversees
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Advocating for a death penalty for Palestinian prisoners
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Celebrating his birthday as well as Israel’s one-sided death penalty law (it only applies to Palestinians) with a birthday cake adorned with an image of a noose
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Defending Israeli soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee
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Being sanctioned by at least 10 Western and European governments over incitement to settler violence.
The American Jewish Committee and DMFI have periodically criticized Ben-Gvir for his public pronouncements, while defending Israel from allegations of the exact genocidal behavior that Ben-Gvir has advanced.
But Ben-Gvir speaks for the Israeli government, and his statements actively reflect Israeli policy. To the extent his latest comments don’t exactly mirror Israeli policy, it is because killing 30 to 40 Palestinians per day would be less deadly than what we have witnessed on the ground.
Between October 2023 and October 2025, when the purported Trump-negotiated “ceasefire” took effect, Israeli forces killed at least 67,000 Palestinians. That equals around 92 people per day. And that is with internal Israeli data suggesting that at least 83% of Palestinians killed were civilians; reams of reporting have shown how Israeli forces have deliberately targeted civilians, women, and children.
Even since the start of the “ceasefire,” Israeli forces have killed at least 20 Palestinians a day.
If Ben-Gvir’s call to kill 30-40 people in Gaza nightly is “heinous and indefensible,” what would these pro-Israel groups make of what Israel has already done in Gaza – and continues to do?
And that leads to the most basic issue at hand. A bluff is to be called: What will these pro-Israel groups do if Netanyahu does not, in fact, expel Ben-Gvir? What if he does not resign? Or what if those most invested in the Israeli project do not even, as AJC vaguely asks for, “condemn” Ben-Gvir?
If these calls were being made in good faith, one could imagine DMFI calling to sanction officials like Ben-Gvir, or more compellingly, condition aid to Israel upon the government holding officials like him accountable. Such an action, though, is the exact policy that DMFI and AJC, and U.S. politicians like Rosen, have spent years fighting fiercely against.
DMFI, AJC, and Rosen’s office did not respond to requests for comment about what actions they would materially take to hold Ben-Gvir accountable, or how his remarks do not reflect Israeli policy.
Ben-Gvir serves as an easy scapegoat for “reasonable” Zionists. He offers a way to absolve Israel, and to pretend that he, not Israel, is radical. But mass expulsion, ethnic cleansing, genocide are, in fact, key, documented tenets of the broader Israeli government. They have been chronicled by human rights groups, and the victims themselves, and unavoidably affirmed over and over and over by other ministers, too. Ben-Gvir is not some marginal figure. He is as representative of the Israeli government’s aims as anyone else – by virtue of his staying presence in it.
Ironically, the same sphere of groups channeling all their criticism into calling on Benjamin Netanyahu to renounce Ben-Gvir are among the same who often couch any criticism of Israel as criticism of Netanyahu alone – as if multicultural Israeli democracy is just waiting to blossom upon his departure.
Accordingly, even if Netanyahu were to go, who waits in the wings as an alternative, as evidence that modern Israel is anything but Ben-Gvir?
Gadi Eisenkot, who currently appears to have the best chance of beating Netanyahu in October, explicitly does not support a Palestinian state, advocates for Jewish settlement in the West Bank, wants to maintain Israel’s apartheid over Palestine, and helped instate the “Dahiya Doctrine” that calls for the use of massive and disproportionate force on civilian targets.
Naftali Bennett – who, like Eisenkot, opposes Palestinian statehood and advocates for annexing the West Bank. He has famously said “I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s absolutely no problem with that,” and, when asked about Palestinians, including kids, crossing the border, said: “They are not children. They are terrorists.”
The supposed moderate Yair Lapid once said that his guiding principle is: “maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians.”
In effect, we have Schrödinger’s Israel. Ben-Gvir’s pre-eminence supposedly tells us nothing about the state of Israel. And also, Israel’s true political character is waiting just beneath the surface of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir’s eventual departure. Israeli democracy is therefore both alive and well, and waiting to be alive and well – a quantum absurdity that can apparently be maintained indefinitely, so long as you don’t look too closely.
Prem Thakker is a Political Correspondent & Columnist for Zeteo
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