Israeli Lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir Pulls Gun on Arab Security Guards

Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the right-wing opposition Religious Zionism party, pulled his gun on an Arab security guard at a parking lot in Tel Aviv.

Ben Gvir was arriving at an event at the Expo Tel Aviv conference center on Tuesday. The guards reportedly asked Ben Gvir to move his car out of a prohibited spot. Ben Gvir said that he felt threatened by the guards, who reportedly were not armed. A video clip of Ben Gvir’s threats taken by one of the guards is circulating on social media. Benzi Gopstein, head of the far-right Lehava group, who was attending the event with Ben Gvir, also filmed the incident.

Ben Gvir called the police, who opened an investigation.   “I saw in front of me security guards with hate in their eyes who cursed me and threatened to harm me. At any moment they could have committed life-threatening violence,” Ben Gvir later said in a statement.  In a tweet, Ben Gvir demanded that the police prosecute the Arab guards.