World
NY activists plan protest against Ben Gvir visit that spokesperson says isn’t happening
Anti-Zionist activists are planning to protest against a purported visit to New York by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, but a spokesperson for the Otzma Yehudit leader said Thursday that he’s not planning on traveling to New York.
Anti-Israel activist groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and the New York branch of Jewish Voice for Peace, say that Ben Gvir is planning to attend a United Nations summit for police next week.
The groups announced a rally at the UN on July 7 and issued an open letter to New York State Attorney General Letitia James asking her to “use the full power of your office to pursue this war criminal.”
Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Hind Rajab Foundation also issued statements in protest of the visit.
Jewish groups were also readying for the far-right minister’s purported arrival in New York City, with several progressive Jewish organizations having planned a protest at a plaza outside the United Nations.
Last month, the Haaretz daily reported that Ben Gvir would lead a delegation to the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS) set to take place on July 7 and 8. But the report was never confirmed by Ben Gvir’s office, and he reportedly later canceled the trip.
A spokesperson for Ben Gvir confirmed to The Times of Israel that he was not planning on attending the UN summit, and the Consulate General of Israel in New York concurred.
“To our knowledge, Minister Ben-Gvir is not coming to New York at the moment,” a staffer for the Consulate General of Israel in New York wrote the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email on Thursday.
Separately, a UN official confirmed to JTA on Thursday that Ben-Gvir was not registered for the police summit, which brings together ministers and law enforcement leaders from around the world, although it is still possible for him to register in the coming days.
Ben Gvir, a highly controversial figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet, is the leader of the country’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party. Before the start of his political career, he was convicted of supporting a terrorist group and other offenses. Since taking office, Ben Gvir has advocated for policies such as renewed Jewish settlement in Gaza and has been sanctioned internationally for allegedly “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Liberal Jewish groups have come out in vocal opposition to the idea of his setting foot in the Big Apple following Haaretz’s initial reporting.
“It’s really important for people, both American Jews and Israelis, to say that extremists like Ben Gvir aren’t accepted in our community,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, head of the progressive rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, told JTA in an interview. “He just doesn’t belong in New York, or in the Israeli government, or espousing his views anywhere in Jewish society.”
T’ruah is co-organizing a protest outside the UN’s summit on Tuesday, along with close to a dozen other liberal Jewish groups. Among them are New York Jewish Agenda, J Street, Israelis for Peace, and the Union for Reform Judaism.
Jacobs said she believes the demonstration will be particularly impactful because it’s coming from “people who are not looking to destroy the state, who are not anti-Israel in any way,” but who envision a “place of both Israelis and Palestinians being safe.”
Another planned protest scheduled just hours later at the same plaza is being led by left-wing groups more sharply critical of Israel. Anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace is among the organizations promoting it. Their open letter calling on James to prosecute Ben-Gvir has more than 6,500 signatures.
It was not clear whether the protests would go ahead despite Ben Gvir apparently deciding against attending the summit.
The last time Ben Gvir visited New York City, just over a year ago, his presence drew a series of heated protests and counter-protests. A few of them took place in Crown Heights, the neighborhood where he visited 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the Chabad Hasidic movement.
He also made pit stops at another Chabad institution and the gravesite of the movement’s late leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as well as at a Midwood kosher restaurant, where he drew a friendlier crowd. A number of other planned events during that trip were canceled the week before.
The same coalition of liberal Jewish groups held a rally last year outside a Wall Street restaurant where Ben Gvir was speaking. New York Rep. Jerry Nadler introduced legislation during that rally aimed at combating settler violence in the West Bank.
Margo Hughes-Robinson, who’s now the executive director of NYJA, co-emceed last year’s demonstration. She said in an interview on Thursday that she hopes that elected officials attend this year and make clear that “what he represents, and his worldview, is anathema to our Jewish values; it’s anathema to the vision of Israel that we support.”
Unlike during Ben Gvir’s last visit, New York City’s mayor is now an anti-Zionist who has vowed to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot in the city due to his outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant, even though the US is not a party to the ICC. (There is no reported ICC arrest warrant for Ben-Gvir.) Following the election of Zohran Mamdani, Ben Gvir described the result as “a moment when antisemitism triumphed over common sense.”
Mamdani’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Several local officials spoke out following the most recent appearance of a far-right Israeli minister in New York, condemning Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who attended the Israel Day parade. None have weighed in so far on Ben-Gvir’s possible return next week.
Hebrew media reported last month that Ben Gvir canceled an earlier visit after he was required by the US Embassy in Israel to arrive in person and provide his fingerprints as a condition for receiving a visa, apparently due to his past criminal convictions.
