Ben-Gvir's Latest Antic: Crocodiles

A few days ago, Israeli Prison Service bulldozers and diggers began excavating trenches and basins around a section of the vast Ketzi’ot Detention Center for Palestinian prisoners in the Negev Desert. The work, deemed a “pilot” project, is designed to provide accommodations and a patrol perimeter for dozens of crocodiles.

This is the latest initiative of Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who hopes to surround the compound - which houses dozens, perhaps hundreds, of captured Hamas “Nukhba Unit” fighters who invaded Israel and butchered and raped hundreds of Israelis - with a ring of reptiles, reinforcing the regular prison security staff. Adult crocodiles weigh between 400 and 1000 kilograms and average four-five meters in length and occasionally maul humans, especially if feeling threatened.

Ben-Gvir, in charge of Israel’s police and prisons, is a persistent publicity hound and headline-grabber. But in announcing the scheme he stressed that it was “no gimmick” and that it was fitting that “those who, like animals, slaughtered and raped” Israelis on October 7, 2023, should be “guarded by animals.”

The reptiles are due to arrive from the crocodile-alligator farm in Hamat Gader (El Hama) in north-eastern Israel, where the Yarmuk River flows into the Jordan River on the border with Jordan and Syria. The farm, adjoining the ruins of Roman baths and hot springs, was set up in 1981 as a tourist attraction, initially with several dozen North American alligators. It currently holds some 250 crocodiles and alligators of various types and is under the jurisdiction of the country’s Nature and Parks Authority, which until now has treated the crocodiles as “protected” animals.

The authority has publicly objected to Ben-Gvir’s scheme. But to over-ride the objection, the Likud’s Minister for Environmental Protection, Idit Silman – under whose aegis the Nature and Parks Authority operates – is making common cause with Ben-Gvir, and officially re-designated the crocodiles as “wild animals nurtured for security purposes.” Silman and Ben-Gvir now hope to provide the scheme with legal cover by getting the Knesset (parliament) to pass a bill endorsing the redefinition. Ben-Gvir has budgeted $7m. for the ongoing earth-work at Ketzi’ot.

The country’s Supreme Court years ago ruled against the exploitation of the Hamat Gader crocodiles for “commercial” purposes and designated them a protected species. The court may soon step in again to prevent their use as prison guards, possibly arguing that Ketzi’ot’s desert climate is unsuitable for crocodiles.

Meanwhile the Israeli press has had a field day with the “Alligator Alcatraz” scheme. Most of the media dismissed it as yet another Ben-Gvir effort to grab headlines in advance of the scheduled 27 October general elections. Israel’s leading daily, Haaretz, on 24 July devoted an editorial to the matter, saying the scheme epitomizes the “craziness” of the Netanyahu government.

The 50-year-old Ben-Gvir, born to Iraqi Jewish parents, lives in the West Bank settler town of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron, with his six children and teacher wife, Ayala Nimrodi, whom he married when she was 17. As a youngster Ben-Gvir was a leading activist of the extreme right. In a succession of trials, he was convicted by Israeli courts of no less than eight charges, ranging from “causing public disorder” to “racist incitement” and “supporting a terrorist organization.” A follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the racist Kach movement, which was designated by the American government a Jewish “terrorist” organization, Ben-Gvir was an outspoken admirer of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish physician and West Bank settler who on 25 February 1994 murdered 29 Muslim Arab worshippers and wounded 125 in the prayer room inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in downtown Hebron. Ben-Gvir and Ayala reportedly visited Goldstein’s grave on their first date. Ben-Gvir has called Goldstein a “great Jew and Tzadik [holy person].” Following the massacre, the Israeli government declared Kach a terrorist organization and years later dismantled the memorial erected next to Goldstein’s tombstone which is in the Meir Kahane Park outside Kiryat Arba.

The IDF never conscripted Ben-Gvir, possibly because of his Kach affiliation, which left him embittered toward the Israeli establishment – but also free to engage in political activism. In 1995, two weeks before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, a smiling Ben-Gvir appeared on Israel TV displaying a Cadillac car logo and said it was ripped off Rabin’s limousine, adding: “As we got to this symbol – we can also get to Rabin.” Later, in 2007, he was active in the campaign to release from prison Rabin’s assassin, the law student Yigal Amir, who is still serving a life sentence.

Ben-Gvir eventually earned a law degree and defended various right-wing extremists. But he himself also continued to break the law. Over the 23 years after he got his driving license Ben-Gvir was fined 73 times for various traffic violations. Since becoming a cabinet minister in 2022 Ben-Gvir’s car was involved in a number of traffic accidents after he reportedly instructed his driver to “step on the gas.”

During Ben-Gvir’s almost four years as the minister in charge of the police there has been a significant uptick in the country’s traffic deaths and an even steeper increase in homicides. In the first six months of his ministry, there was a 60% increase in homicides among Israel’s Jews and during his first year in office a 110% increase in murders among Israel’s Arab citizens. The murder rate among Israel’s Arabs has continued to rise steeply, with few arrests, prosecutions or convictions. Deflecting blame, Ben-Gvir holds responsible the courts and Israel’s attorney-general, Gali Baharav-Mi’ara, who has repeatedly pressed for his dismissal from office.

As minister of National Security since 2022, Ben-Gvir has abused the country’s governmental norms in a host of ways. His ministry issued a welter of gun licenses, especially to West Bank settlers and other populations with right-wing affiliations and Ben-Gvir has interfered in the day-to-day running of the police force, for example in approving or blocking promotions. During the war in Gaza, Ben-Gvir instructed the police deputy commissioner-general to refrain from protecting humanitarian aid convoys heading into the Gaza Strip (this was subsequently ruled illegal by the state attorney’s office).

But, in the eyes of Israeli centrists and left-wingers, Ben-Gvir’s most prominent “sin” has been the police inaction against settler attacks against West Bank Palestinians. In theory, the West Bank is under Israel police jurisdiction. But Ben-Gvir’s police have done nothing during the past three years to curb settler violence against Palestinian farmers and shepherds, often resulting in Palestinian deaths and injury, the arson of homes, cars and mosques, and the uprooting of small Palestinian communities. Almost none of the Jewish “pogromchiks” have been arrested or charged with anything.

During the ongoing war Ben-Gvir garnered a lot of media attention – and praise from right-wingers - by worsening the condition of Palestinians held in Israel’s prisons. This included significantly reducing Arab prisoners’ food rations, routine abuse by prison guards, including beatings, and prevention of Red Cross and family visits – a policy incidentally criticized by Israel’s General Security Service (Shin Bet) as leading directly to the abuse of Israeli hostages held by the Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Ben-Gvir has been a prominent advocate of the death penalty for Arab terrorists and a prominent promoter of the law that passed earlier this year endorsing executions for certain crimes.

The law was designed to particularly target “Nukhba” terrorists – but has so far not led to any executions and the Nukhba fighters in Israeli hands since 2023 have so far not even been put on trial. Israeli law from before 2026 actually allowed for the execution of terrorists – but it has never been enforced. Israel, since inception, has judicially executed only two prisoners - Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, in 1961, and, in June 1948, Meir Tobianski, an IDF officer (wrongly) accused of spying for the Arabs during the first Arab-Israeli war (the Israeli government subsequently apologized and re-buried him with full military honors).

Over the past three years Ben-Gvir, usually joined by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also a West Bank settler and head of the Religious Zionist Party, has opposed all compromises and concessions, especially toward the Palestinians, regarding both the West Bank – which both seek to annex - and potential hostage-for-ceasefire deals with the Hamas. Ben-Gvir has intermittently criticized the Trump Administration for “weakness” and the European Union for being “pro-Palestinian” or critical of Israel. In reaction and responding to some of Ben-Gvir’s anti-Arab actions, some EU states (including Ireland, Slovenia, Poland, France and Spain) have banned his entry into their countries – while others (including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway) have imposed various sanctions against him (and Smotrich). The US, for its part, in June placed specific obstacles in Ben-Gvir’s way that persuaded him to cancel a planned visit to Miami.

Ben-Gvir has repeatedly explicitly supported “transferring” – meaning expatriation of - Gaza’s civilian population and occasionally the transfer of Israeli Arabs and the Arab population of the West Bank, in line with basic Kahanist doctrine.

The European states were especially incensed by the Israel police’s treatment in May 2026 – on Ben-Gvir’s orders – of pro-Hamas (or human rights) activists detained in the Mediterranean after a flotilla heading for Gaza was stopped by the Israeli navy. The detainees were taken ashore and handed over to the police and Prison Service. They later complained of physical abuse, beatings, and even torture. The Italian government subsequently launched a criminal investigation into Israel’s behavior. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who has always supported the West Bank settler movement, condemned Ben-Gvir’s behavior. The minister was prominently photographed next to the abused detainees, jeering at them. Netanyahu subsequently declared that Ben-Gvir had not acted in line with the “values of the State of Israel” and Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Ben-Gvir had caused Israel harm.

But over the past years, Netanyahu has routinely let Ben-Gvir’s antics and misbehavior pass without comment or criticism because of Ben-Gvir’s (and Smotrich’s) stranglehold over the coalition. Together, the two ministers and their parties control 14 Knesset seats. If they bolt the coalition, which musters 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, the government falls, forcing early elections. And even if Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party – with seven seats - leaves alone, the coalition would teeter. And, of course, Netanyahu agrees with Ben-Gvir on most major issues, including the desirability of Israeli annexation of the West Bank and a hardline toward the Palestinians and Iran.

According to recent opinion polls, Ben-Gvir is likely to win 10-12 seats in the coming elections, which will leave him a major player in Israel’s politics whoever wins. Some of Ben-Gvir’s prospective supporters apparently come from the Likud, which they now deem insufficiently hardline. And Ben-Gvir, according to the polls, will perform well among first-time voters and IDF conscripts, who are in the vanguard of Israel’s general drift to the Right since October 7.