Ben Gvir slams Netanyahu for saying he would re-legislate ban on racist MPs

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The far-right Otzma Yehudit party criticizes new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying he would create new legislation banning racist politicians from running for the Knesset.

“To our friends in Likud: We are used to a deal being a deal and a word being a word,” the party said in a statement released by its leader, MK Itamar Ben Gvir. “We haven’t been briefed on any new laws that Likud says it intends to pass, but we’re obviously open to how we can get rid of them. [Hadash-Ta’al MKs Ahmad] Tibi and [Ayman] Odeh and Ofer Cassif.

Likud and Otzma Yehudit had agreed to repeal the current law, which bans political candidates who incite racism or support terror groups. The current wording of the law makes no distinction between Jews and Arabs. It is rarely enforced, but was used in 2019 to ban far-right MPs Baruch Marzel and Benzi Gopstein, longtime associates of Ben Gvir.

Ben Gvir says the purpose of overriding the clause is “to end the injustice that is being done only to Jews.”

Likud had said earlier in the day in response to the outcry that it supported rolling back the current legislation, but planned to pass a new law instead that would apply equally to Jews and to the Arabs.

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