Ben-Gvir ends US visit amid pro-Palestine protests

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ended his first official visit to the US on Tuesday amid chants of “Free Palestine” by demonstrators inside the Capitol building in Washington. A video circulating on social media showed several supporters of Palestinians chanting “Free Palestine” directly at Ben-Gvir during his visit to the US Congress.

Ben-Gvir arrived in the US last week for his first visit since joining the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late 2022, and since President Donald Trump took office in January. During his trip, he faced pro-Palestinian protesters at multiple locations.

The far-right extremist minister said on social media that he concluded his “diplomatic visit to the United States at the Capitol building, holding important meetings with senior Congress members who expressed their full support for Israel.”

However, the Israeli minister also encountered criticism from supporters of Israeli hostages’ families upon arriving at a Florida airport, according to widely-shared social media videos.

While Ben-Gvir mentioned meeting US Congress members in his posts, he didn’t say that he met any official from the US administration. He also claimed last Wednesday that US Republicans backed his call for bombing food and aid stores in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Last Thursday, however, the US State Department dismissed Ben-Gvir’s claim, saying that his remarks were a “complete contradiction” of US policy.

The former US administration of Joe Biden had boycotted Ben-Gvir over his extreme rhetoric, incitement to violence against Palestinians and support for settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Equally far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich faced a similar boycott under Biden, but he visited Washington in February after Trump returned to office. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich rank among the most extreme figures in Netanyahu’s government, both notorious for their anti-Palestinian rhetoric and public calls to expel Palestinians from their land.

The two ministers have openly encouraged settler violence against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank, where attacks have escalated dramatically since the start of Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023. Israel has since killed at least 52,300 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children.

READ: France calls on Israel to ‘stop the massacre in Gaza’