MK Itamar Ben Gabir’s list won an unprecedented achievement of 14 mandates this week as part of the right-wing bloc’s victory. Close to the election date, Ben Gabir stated that he would demand the internal security portfolio.
Meanwhile, Globes learned that the investigation file against Itamar Ben Gabir is expected to be shelved in the coming days. This is an incident from December 2021 in which MK Ben Gabir was recorded confronting Arab security guards in a parking lot at the Exhibition Grounds in Tel Aviv. During the confrontation, Ben Gabir was seen with a gun drawn.
According to Ben Gvir, the Arab security guards threatened him and approached him, and he pulled out his personal gun in self-defense. In February of this year, Ben Gabir was summoned for questioning with a warning, and stuck to his initial version. According to him in the investigation, the videos that the investigators showed him during the investigation – supported his version and denied their version because they did not approach him and did not threaten him.
For a long time the case remained with the police, and at the beginning of the election campaign was transferred to the prosecutor’s office for review and decision. The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office recommended about two weeks ago to the State Attorney and the Legal Advisor to the Government to shelve the investigation against Ben Gabir, but an official decision on the matter has not yet been made.
In any case, nine months after being investigated with a warning and just after the elections, the criminal case against the MK designated for the position of Minister of Internal Security will now be shelved.
Itamar Ben Gvir responded: “I wonder why the investigation file against the ‘security guards’ was closed, as it turned out that one of them was a terrorist on the loose who threw a Molotov cocktail. At the same time, it was already clear at the time of the investigation that the case would be closed and I have no doubt that if the police investigators had known that it was a terrorist on the loose, no one would He would have thought to talk to me about this matter.”
The state attorney’s office said in response: “A decision has not yet been made on the matter.”
Interestingly, the day after election day, the police opened an investigation against people who worked for the Jewish Home’s election campaign after Ben Gvir filed a police complaint. The investigation is for suspicion of spreading false messages by an employee at the headquarters of the Jewish Home in order to harm Ben Gabir’s Otzma Yehudit party.
The police spokeswoman updated that the cyber unit in Lahab 433 detained for investigation three family members on suspicion of distributing SMS messages that allegedly mislead the public and call for voting in the ballot box for the party with the wrong letter on the ballot paper.
According to the suspicion, during the election day, hundreds of thousands of SMS messages were distributed by two parents and their son, residents of the central region, who ran an election campaign in favor of a party that contested the elections. The wording of the message reads “The time has come Ben Gvir, we need a strong right. Vote B!!!! We are on the wave. Every vote counts!”.
According to the police, upon receiving the complaint, the cyber investigators began using technological means to trace the distributors of the message. After they were located, they were detained for questioning with a warning on suspicion of an offense under the Computer Law, attempting to obtain something fraudulently and disrupting the elections.
The employees of the company that provided the message sending services to the Jewish Home claimed to the police that they were not behind the content that was sent, and that the content was decided by an employee at the Jewish Home headquarters with whom they worked in cooperation. It should be noted that the party, as well as Ayelet Shaked, claimed that they were not aware of this action by that employee at the party headquarters.