Middle East Monitor / May 28, 2022
A Jewish settler on Friday revealed the involvement of extremist Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir in terrorist attacks against Palestinians, as reported by Israel’s Channel 12.
Settler Roni Hen disclosed on the channel’s The Truth program: “MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who follows the Religious Zionist movement, is the one who recruited me into the Hilltop Youth price tag gangs, who are responsible for carrying out numerous attacks on Palestinians.”
The price tag gangs are affiliated with the Hilltop Youth group, a hard-line, extremist religious-nationalist youth group comprising right-wing Jewish settlers. They carry out attacks on Palestinian properties and Islamic and Christian holy sites in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
Hen indicated that on 15 May, 2011, she: “Set fire to a Palestinian car in the Hebron governorate (southern West Bank) while under house arrest at the Ben-Gvir house in Kiryat Arba settlement.”
Hen revealed that Ben-Gvir: “Disposed of the bottle that had remnants of gasoline left over from the burning of the Palestinian car, despite being the lawyer who was supposed to ensure that I stay at home, on behalf of the court.”
Hen also confirmed that she participated in a secret meeting of the Hilltop Youth gangs, held in the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron/Al-Khalil, during which they talked about: “Killing Palestinians, storming Al-Aqsa Mosque and barricading themselves inside it.”
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper revealed in a previous report, published in April 2018, that Ben-Gvir worked as a lawyer for two people involved in the attack that killed members of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma in the northern West Bank.
Hen stated that a year after she decided to leave the Hilltop Youth, she received a request from Shin Bet security service and decided to tell them what she knew about Ben-Gvir.
