A far-right Israeli minister openly encouraging the alleged torture, abuse, rape and killing of Palestinian detainees remains listed as a “key international contact” on Public Safety Canada’s (PSC) website.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, who currently serves as Israel’s minister of “national security,” recently joined crowds of Israeli citizens who attempted to storm a facility where nine Israeli troops were held over allegations of raping a Palestinian detainee.
The abuse was allegedly carried out by Israeli troops at the Sde Teiman prison, a newly created facility on a military base where media reports indicate that at least 36 Palestinian detainees have died, some likely as a result of torture — and with Ben-Gvir’s “instrumental” support.
A CNN investigation reported systematic violence and abuse at the facility, where some Palestinian inmates have had limbs amputated due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing.
Other inmates, many of whom have not been charged with any crime, have reportedly been forced to wear diapers and be fed through straws, while others are regularly subjected to arbitrary beatings and psychological torture, according to whistleblowers.
The United Nations warned this week that abuses at Sde Teiman “only represent the tip of the iceberg,” noting that “9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned—around one-third without charge or trial,” along with an unknown number held in detention facilities and “ad hoc camps.”
UN experts “received substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions, with at least 53 Palestinians apparently dying as a result in 10 months,” according to a statement published on August 5.
During the protests in defence of the alleged rapists at Sde Teiman last month, Ben-Gvir, whose ministry runs Israel’s police and prison services, tweeted in Hebrew: “Take your hands off the reservists.” In a separate statement, the minister declared that the alleged rapists were Israel’s “best heroes” and condemned their arrest as “nothing less than shameful.”
“The summer camps and patience for the terrorists are over,” Ben-Gvir added. “Fighters should get full backing.” The protests prompted a row among some members of the Israeli government, marking the latest chaotic episode within an increasingly isolated and belligerent Israeli state.
A politician belonging to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud party, Hanoch Milwidsky, openly defended the use of rape against Palestinian prisoners during a debate in the Israeli legislature on July 29.
When asked about the presence of Ben-Gvir’s name on the PSC website, a ministry spokesperson said the webpage was a copy of a “Transition Reference Book” prepared in 2023 for incoming PSC Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Ben-Gvir’s name appears on a page titled “Key Contacts and Stakeholders,” and ministers from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, the European Union, Mexico, Japan, and Italy are also listed as international contacts.
“It is a snapshot of a point in time,” PSC spokesperson Max Watson wrote in an email to The Maple. “Mr. Ben-Gvir was Israel’s Minister of National Security at that time and was therefore included in a list of global counterparts.”
But Ben-Gvir was well known as a convicted racist and supporter of far-right terrorism long before PSC prepared the transition document. He was found guilty by an Israeli court for both offences in 2007, and was also a youth activist in the far-right “Kach” party, which PSC lists as a proscribed terrorist organization.
Ben-Gvir’s criminal record was widely publicized at the time of his ministerial appointment in Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government in late 2022.
Canadian diplomatic staff had also flagged Ben-Gvir’s extremist behaviour months before he entered government. In August 2022, Global Affairs Canada’s (GAC) “Watch Unit,” which is tasked with monitoring events that impact “the safety and security of Canadians,” was notified that Ben-Gvir’s provocations at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem meant the area was placed “off limits” to Canadian embassy staff for safety reasons.
Alex Cosh
Since joining Netanyahu’s government, Ben-Gvir’s violent actions against Palestinians have only escalated. In early July, the Israeli minister called for Palestinian prisoners to be executed to reduce overcrowding and boasted that “one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons.” A preliminary reading of Ben-Gvir’s proposal to execute Palestinian prisoners was approved by the Israeli legislature last year.
Ben-Gvir has also called for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and for the re-colonization of the besieged enclave by Israeli settlers.
Israel’s state attorney requested permission to open a criminal probe into Ben-Gvir last month over his alleged “incitement to violence” against Palestinians. The move was seen as an attempt to avert genocide charges against the state of Israel amid its ongoing war on Gaza.
PSC did not respond to a follow up question from The Maple asking if the ministry still considers Ben-Gvir to be a “key international contact.”
Ben-Gvir’s presence on the PSC website was first flagged by the advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), which wrote to LeBlanc on July 5 to express “grave concerns regarding your Ministry’s co-operation with Israel’s Ministry of National Security [... and] a violent far-right extremist whose ‘torture camps’ have been revealed in multiple recent exposés.”
“We are concerned that despite these serious violations of human rights and international law, your Ministry is likely to continue to engage with Ben-Gvir under the terms of the Canada-Israel Strategic Partnership, and Public Safety Canada even appears to identify Ben-Gvir as a key contact and important partner,” the letter explained, citing the 2023 transition document.
“We request full disclosure of the nature of this relationship and seek assurances that all ties with Ben-Gvir and his Ministry will be cancelled.”
The letter also cited PSC’s signing of a co-operation agreement with the ministry’s Israeli counterparts in 2008, and a memorandum of understanding which included a commitment to collaborating with Israel on “defence and security” matters in 2014.
Michael Bueckert, vice president of CJPME, told The Maple that his organization never heard back from the ministry, but that PSC’s explanation to The Maple about the presence of Ben-Gvir’s name on the ministry website provides no reassurances.
“It lets us know that even a number of months into Ben-Gvir’s time as a minister in Israel’s far-right government, the government of Canada thought it completely normal and legitimate to continue to list him as a key partner,” said Bueckert.
“At that time, everyone should have known exactly who Ben-Gvir was and what he was all about, so it’s either a total lack of consideration or worse.”
Bueckert noted that CJPME’s concerns about Canada’s co-operation with Israel’s ministry of “national security” goes back further than Ben-Gvir’s tenure in government.
“You have over 15 years of increasing structural relationships between these two ministries, one of which happens to be systemically involved in the routine torture and abuse of Palestinians, many detained without without charge,” he explained.
Bueckert said the public has a right to know about any ongoing contact with Ben-Gvir’s ministry, or if PSC has severed ties with the current administration.
“As it is, we’re left in the dark, and the only indications are what continue to be listed in writing on the website,” said Bueckert.
Alex Cosh is the news editor of The Maple.
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