Ben-Gvir removes party MK from foreign affairs panel
Otzma Yehudit lawmaker MK Almog Cohen took aim at his faction leader National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after his dismissal from the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday evening.
Ben-Gvir decided to dismiss Cohen from his spot in the Knesset committee after several instances in which Cohen, who is in his first term as an MK, acted independently from his party’s views and publicly criticized the national security minister’s conduct within the coalition.
In a tweet sent out following a meeting between himself and Ben-Gvir, Cohen accused the minister of carrying out “personal vendettas” instead of addressing an upsurge of crime
and violence in Israel’s Negev and Galilee regions.
“I was disappointed to hear of my dismissal,” Cohen said, sarcastically suggesting that his replacement in the committee should be Ben-Gvir’s controversial right-hand man and chief-of-staff, Chanamel Dorfman.
On Wednesday morning, Cohen admitted that he was hurt by the way he was fired by his faction leader, in an interview with KAN Reshet B. “It leaked to the press as I was receiving the news from BenGvir,”
Cohen said.
Cohen claimed his dismissal was due to his objection to Otzma Yehudit’s boycott of Knesset votes after the Development of the Negev and Galilee and National Resilience Ministry received what Ben-Gvir felt was insufficient funding.
The boycott proved successful, however, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich conceded a NIS 250 million raise to the ministry in order to pass the budget, which the coalition did overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Everyone in the faction says what is on their minds, I was punished for it, and that is okay,” Cohen said. “I think we should put more focus into the burning issues rather than disciplining MKs.”