Itamar Ben-Gvir

Few politicians in Israel divide the public as sharply as Itamar Ben-Gvir, and on JudgeMarket the public's verdict on him is polarized rather than lukewarm: fervent support on the nationalist right and among those who demand a firm hand on security, against fierce opposition in the center and on the left. A far-right activist since his youth and a lawyer who represented right-wing activists, convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and support for a terrorist organization, he led Otzma Yehudit into government in 2022 and has since been national security minister, in charge of the police and the Prison Service. His supporters present the expansion of gun licensing and harsher conditions for security prisoners as achievements; his critics see them, like his visits to the Temple Mount and his statements about Gaza, as a danger to public order and to Israel's standing in the world. Because he generates headlines almost nonstop, his standing is especially sensitive to the flow of news. The legal front is open too: four petitions demand that the prime minister be ordered to dismiss him over alleged improper interference in police work; in April 2026 the High Court declined to order his removal but turned the framework of principles worked out between him and the attorney general into a binding arrangement, and a final ruling has yet to be issued. His position is tied to his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu: in January 2025 he quit the government in protest over the hostage deal and returned in March, and his repeated threats to quit have made him a decisive factor in the coalition's stability. In the October 27 election he leads Otzma Yehudit with a campaign that highlights the law imposing the death penalty on terrorists, which the Knesset passed in March 2026, and the more than a thousand local rapid-response squads he says he set up, with Tally Gotliv, who came over from Likud, beside him in second place; he claims that Netanyahu plans to form a government with Gadi Eisenkot, and demands the Defense Ministry for himself in the next government. The size of his party and the coalition math after the election will decide whether his influence expands or contracts.