Israeli far-right's Ben-Gvir to be police minister under coalition deal

"We took a big step (last night) towards a full coalition agreement, toward forming a fully, fully right-wing government," Ben-Gvir said in a statement issued early on Friday. Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing a group considered by Israel and the United States to be a terrorist organization, will have an expanded security portfolio that will include responsibility for Border Police in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir is to become police minister under a coalition deal with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party that is set to create the most right-wing government in the country's history. The agreement comes after Netanyahu's right-wing alliance won a comfortable victory in this month's parliamentary election, Israel's fifth in less than four years.

Netanyahu is still continuing talks with three other parties on forming the new government. "We took a big step (last night) towards a full coalition agreement, toward forming a fully, fully right-wing government," Ben-Gvir said in a statement issued early on Friday.

Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing a group considered by Israel and the United States to be a terrorist organization, will have an expanded security portfolio that will include responsibility for Border Police in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the deal involving Ben-Gvir would have a "potentially catastrophic impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and hinder the revival of negotiations between the two sides, which stalled in 2014.

The agreement, which gives Ben-Gvir a position in the Israeli government security cabinet, comes after months of tensions in the West Bank following a deadly army crackdown in the wake of a spate of fatal attacks in Israel by Palestinian militants. It also comes just days after a coordinated bombing attack on two bus stops in Jerusalem that killed an Israel-Canadian student and wounded at least 14 others.

In addition to the expanded security portfolio, Ben-Gvir's party will also take ministries in charge of development in the Negev and Galilee regions, the heritage ministry and a deputy position in the Economy Ministry as well as the chairmanship of the Knesset Public Security Committee. AL AQSA TENSIONS

As a settler living in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war, Ben-Gvir has long been a fierce opponent of Palestinian statehood. During the election campaign, he was seen brandishing a gun at Palestinian demonstrators in occupied East Jerusalem. He also supports Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque complex, a flashpoint site holy to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. The site, said to have once housed two ancient Jewish temples, has seen repeated clashes between Muslims and Jewish visitors defying rules prohibiting prayer by non-Muslims there.

As his party has moved closer to government, Ben-Gvir has moderated some of his earlier positions and says he no longer advocates expulsion of all Palestinians - only those he deems traitors or terrorists. His arrival in government prompted the U.S. State Department to say this month that it expected all officials in the new Israeli administration to share the values of an "open, democratic society, including tolerance and respect for all in civil society".

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