Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alonYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Tuesday blasted the chairman of the Otzma Yehudit party, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, and called for him to be outlawed.

"I see Itamar Ben Gvir's calls for death to Arabs," he told Haaretz’s weekly podcast. "We need to ensure integration and not incite between Jews and Arabs. Basing politics on incitement is not leadership."

"I would take him out of the Knesset altogether, outlaw him," continued Ya’alon. "I would have outlawed him on the basis of his ideology. Kahana was outlawed? He too should have been outlawed. Unfortunately, again, in order to avoid trial, Netanyahu brought him into the Knesset through the front door and you hear him and Smotrich speak using non-Jewish terms."

"Smotrich is borderline. He calls himself religious Zionism. This is neither Zionism nor religious. His wife refuses to give birth in the same room as an Arab. This is happening in a Jewish state? These are the Jewish values? Ben Gvir in this matter is even more extreme," said Ya’alon.

He also attacked the head of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, who criticized the government following the wave of terrorism. "Who was in power here for 12 years? He can only complain to himself. The proliferation of weapons in the Arab sector happened during his shift, what is he blaming this government for?"

On the responses to the terrorist attacks, Ya’alon said, "There must also be responsibility. Even as the opposition, they should not dance on blood. I see Likud and Smotrich’s people dancing on blood and inciting against the Arabs. I look at the picture as a whole, I am in favor of Arab integration in Israel and I say clearly - If we were weak, alas, the Arabs of Israel would slaughter us. But we are strong, what are we afraid of?"