'I'm the landlord here': Far-right Israeli minister Ben Gvir provokes Palestinians during Negev visit

Extreme-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has told a Bedouin community, "I'm the landlord here", in the latest provocation directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The public security minister, who has called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, was visiting the Bedouin village of Lakiya, amid an ongoing epidemic of crime and murder in Palestinian communities within Israel's 1948 borders.

Rather than listen to the concerns of locals and village officials, Ben-Gvir, who was surrounded by police and minders, used the visit to the Negev village to insult and intimidate the Palestinian inhabitants.

"We will mow down whoever is bad, I’m not afraid of them, I’m the landlord here," Ben Gvir told the local Arab community.

Ben-Gvir then yelled barra, "out" in Arabic, at the local MK Walid al-Hawashleh of the Ra'am party, an insult the extremist minister has frequently directed at Palestinian politicians in the Knesset.

"You racist, you haven’t done anything about the murders in Arab society," al-Hawashleh told Ben-Gvir. "You’re only making provocations here."

Ben-Gvir is known for stunts directed against Palestinians, having taken part in frequent settler raids of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and storming Palestinian politician Marwan Barghouti's cell, in order to insult the prisoner.

Palestinian towns have been hit by a crime wave in recent years, with 230 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed so far in 2025, far higher than the average among Jewish Israelis.

Ben-Gvir, who oversees national security, has been accused of deliberately worsening the situation in Arab communities, including closing down an agency dedicated to tackling crime there.

On Monday, opposition leader Yair Lapid also accused Ben-Gvir of using the visit to Lakiya to appeal to his far-right, Jewish supremacist base 

"[He] drove to Lakiya in the Negev to fight with the head of the local council, so he could have a video of himself arguing with Arabs,” Lapid said. "That’s all he knows how to do: fight with Arabs and film it."

Lapid also claimed that crime is as much a problem for Jewish Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and that Ben-Gvir had failed in his job as National Security Minister.

"[The message he] is trying to sell us is that violence and murder are an ‘Arab problem,’ and why should we care if Arabs kill each other," he said.

Palestinians blame the high crime rates on a lack of willingness of Israeli authorities to address the issue of murders in their towns and villages. Many have contended that it is state policy to have gangs run wild in Arab towns to divide their communities.