Jewish groups plan to protest Ben-Gvir’s arrival in NYC. Will he show?

JTA – Jewish groups are preparing for the arrival of Israeli far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir in New York City next week. 

Several progressive Jewish organisations have planned a protest at a plaza outside the United Nations (UN), where Israeli media reported that the minister would be attending a conference on policing. Other left-wing groups have planned their own demonstrations and circulated an open letter with thousands of signatures calling for State Attorney General Letitia James to prosecute Ben-Gvir for war crimes upon his arrival. 

But it’s unclear whether Ben-Gvir is coming at all. 

“To our knowledge, Minister Ben-Gvir is not coming to New York at the moment,” a staffer for the Consulate General of Israel in New York told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) in an email on Thursday. 

Separately, a UN official confirmed to JTA on Thursday that Ben-Gvir was not yet registered for the UN Chiefs of Police Summit, which brings together ministers and law enforcement leaders from around the world. The conference is taking place on 7 and 8 July, though it is still possible for him to register in the coming days. 

Ben-Gvir, a highly controversial figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet, is the leader of the country’s far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party. Before he entered the Knesset he was convicted of supporting a terrorist group and other offences, and since taking office has advocated for policies such as renewed Jewish settlement in Gaza. He has been sanctioned for allegedly “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank. 

Liberal Jewish groups have come out in vocal opposition to the idea of him setting foot in the Big Apple following Haaretz’s initial reporting that Ben-Gvir was coming. 

“It’s really important for people, both American Jews and Israelis, to say that extremists like Ben-Gvir aren’t accepted in our community,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, head of the progressive rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, told JTA in an interview. “He just doesn’t belong in New York, or in the Israeli government, or espousing his views anywhere in Jewish society.” 

T’ruah is co-organising a protest outside the UN summit on Tuesday, along with close to a dozen other liberal Jewish groups. Among them are New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA), J Street, Israelis for Peace, and the Union for Reform Judaism. 

Jacobs said she believes the demonstration will be particularly impactful because it’s coming from “people who are not looking to destroy the state, who are not anti-Israel in any way”, but who envision a “place of both Israelis and Palestinians being safe”. 

Another planned protest scheduled just hours later at the same plaza is being led by left-wing groups more sharply critical of Israel. Antizionist group Jewish Voice for Peace is among the organisations promoting it. Their open letter calling on James to prosecute Ben-Gvir has more than 6 500 signatures. 

The last time Ben-Gvir visited New York City, just over a year ago, his presence drew a series of heated protests and counter-protests. A few of them took place in Crown Heights, the neighbourhood where he visited 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of the Chabad Chassidic movement. 

He also made pit stops at another Chabad institution and the gravesite of the movement’s late leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as well as at a Midwood kosher restaurant, where he drew a friendlier crowd. A number of other planned events during that trip were cancelled the week before. 

The same coalition of liberal Jewish groups held a rally last year outside a Wall Street restaurant where Ben-Gvir was speaking. New York Representative Jerry Nadler introduced legislation during that rally aimed at combatting settler violence in the West Bank. 

Margo Hughes-Robinson, who’s now the executive director of NYJA, co-emceed last year’s demonstration. She said in an interview on Thursday that she hopes that elected officials attend this year’s and make clear that “what he represents, and his worldview, is anathema to our Jewish values, it’s anathema to the vision of Israel that we support”. 

Ben-Gvir was slated to make another trip to the US more recently for a wedding, though he ended up cancelling the trip after he was asked to provide his fingerprints in order to obtain a visa. 

Unlike during Ben-Gvir’s last visit, New York’s mayor is now an antizionist who has vowed to arrest Netanyahu if he steps foot in Israel due to his outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, even though the US is not a party to the ICC. There is no reported ICC arrest warrant for Ben-Gvir, who described the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani as “a moment when antisemitism triumphed over common sense”. 

Mamdani’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 

A number of local officials spoke out following the most recent appearance of a far-right Israeli minister in New York, condemning Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who attended the Israel Day parade. None have weighed in so far on Ben-Gvir’s possible return next week.