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Itamar Ben-Gvir vs. Bella Hadid

Photo: [M] DER SPIEGEL; Gil Cohen-Magen / AFP ; Eric Gaillard / REUTERS

"My right, the right of my wife and children to move around Judea and Samaria (West Bank), is more important than the freedom of movement of the Arabs. The right to life comes before freedom of movement" – this is what Israel's far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a television interview, as reported by the newspaper "Haaretz", among others. He is now being criticized for this – which comes from US model Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, among others.

"Nowhere and at no time, especially in 2023, should one life be worth more than another's," she wrote on Instagram to her nearly 60 million followers. She added, "Especially not because of ethnicity, culture, or pure hatred."

Ben-Gvir then turned to the Arab-Israeli journalist Mohammad Magadli in the room and said: "Sorry Mohammad, but this is the reality." The minister responded to Hadid's criticism in a statement calling her an "Israel-hater" and accusing her of sharing only a snippet of the interview on her social media account to portray him as a racist.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department also intervened. "We condemn the inflammatory statements of Minister Ben-Gvir in the strongest possible terms," a spokesman said when asked. "We condemn all racist rhetoric," the U.S. State Department said. Israelis and Palestinians deserve "the same level of freedom and security."

Several human rights organizations accused Ben-Gvir of pursuing apartheid policies. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Ben-Gvir's remark on Thursday as "racist and abhorrent" and said it "only confirms Israel's apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy."

Israel had conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. According to the latest figures, around 700,000 Israeli settlers live there today. The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-dominated eastern part of Jerusalem as its capital.

Ben-Gvir lives with his family in an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Hebron. His statements were prompted by calls for tougher restrictions on Palestinians in response to several deadly attacks on Israelis in the West Bank. Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing religious government demanded, for example, that roads be controlled even more strictly.

aeh/dpa/Reuters