Middle East Monitor / June 26, 2023
A heated confrontation broke out between the two during a phone conversation on Saturday evening.
Israel’s Channel 12 yesterday revealed a clash between the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet), Ronen Bar, over the confrontations with the occupation in the Golan Heights and the occupation authorities’ decision to freeze the wind turbine project.
According to the report, a heated confrontation broke out between the two during a phone conversation on Saturday evening, during which Ben-Gvir objected to the security services’ recommendation to freeze the wind turbine project in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The conversation escalated to a verbal argument during which Ben-Gvir compared protests by the Druze population in the Golan Heights to the terrorist attacks carried out by settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Ben-Gvir said, “If it were the Hilltop Youth, you would have punished them immediately,” adding, “I don’t understand. I’m putting pressure on myself. If there are threats, they have to be dealt with.”
Bar responded: “What the Hilltop Youth are doing is terror in every sense of the word. They are harming all citizens of the country. This is very dangerous.”
Ben-Gvir replied: “But what the Druze rioters did in the Golan is also dangerous. They shot at policemen and tried to storm a police station.”
Channel 12 reported that the call ended with shouting from both sides, with Bar saying: “There is no connection between Turmus Ayya and the Golan Heights; we need to deal with groups of rioters in both Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] and the Golan Heights.”
