Otzma Yehudit party chief MK Itamar Ben-Gvir (Religious Zionist Party) held a press conference Sunday evening, laying out his conditions for joining a government headed by Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking to reporters at the VERT hotel in Jerusalem two days before Israelis head to the polls, Ben-Gvir said he plans to demand that he be appointed Public Security Minister in exchange for backing Netanyahu as premier.
“I am announcing that I intend to demand the position of Public Security Minister in the right-wing government that will be formed.”
“I do this after careful consideration. Thousands of people have turned to me, saying: ‘Ben-Gvir, save the police.’”
Ben-Gvir laid out some of his planned policy changes for the Public Security Ministry, including reforms to the regulations on the use of live-fire, granting personal immunity to soldiers and officers, stripping jailed terrorists of various benefits, and a crackdown on Arab extortion rackets and agricultural terrorism.