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Meroz's Ben-Gvir visit ends in a debate over women's choices

A speakerphone call brings Orly Vilnai into the home interview, shifting the argument from policing and security to modesty, exclusion and military service.

Channel: C14 Hebrew channel ·

IsraelStory of November 3, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of C14's most watched videos since yesterday, with 103,364 views.

C14: Israel's Channel 14, a news channel on the political right, on air since 2014 (as Channel 20 until 2021). 497K subscribers and 758M views.

גיא מרוז יצא לבקר את איתמר בן גביר בביתו - ויצא עם תובנות מפתיעות | חוזר עם תשובה, פרק ראשון

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4:45Ben-Gvir recounts October 7 and says earlier warnings had gone unheeded in the cabinet.
8:05Meroz questions Ben-Gvir about capital punishment, encouraging emigration and his views of Arab society.
13:18Ben-Gvir proposes recruiting ultra-Orthodox men through Border Police units.
15:40Meroz challenges Ben-Gvir about his conduct before Rabin's assassination; the minister says Rabin should not have been harmed.
18:41Ben-Gvir discusses Arab-community crime and changes he says he has made to policing and prisons.
20:56Vilnai joins by phone; she and Ayala Ben-Gvir debate exclusion, modesty, advertising and respect for women's choices.

Orly Vilnai joins the conversation by speakerphone, but soon becomes central to it. Journalist Guy Meroz has called his wife from Itamar Ben-Gvir's home, where a visit across deep political differences turns into an argument about what respecting women's choices means.

The first episode of Meroz's interview series on Israel's Channel 14 (C14) follows him through Hebron and the adjoining Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank. His host is Israel's national security minister and leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party. Meroz begins by acknowledging his fears about the visit and his harsh past criticism of Ben-Gvir.

He arrives with a framed picture bearing a dove and a biblical promise of peace. Around the family table, the discussion initially covers Ben-Gvir's move from law into politics and family life. It soon reaches the October 7 attack: the minister recounts his first calls with the police commissioner and says the cabinet had failed to heed earlier warnings.

In the car, Meroz questions him about the death penalty for terrorists, encouraging emigration and his views of Arab society. Later, Ben-Gvir describes changes he says he has made to policing and prisons as they discuss murders and crime in Arab communities.

The route also takes them to a synagogue, where Meroz puts on a prayer shawl and tefillin, and into a street encounter with Bentzi Gopstein, founder of Lehava, a far-right organization opposed to Jewish-non-Jewish relationships. Meroz questions Gopstein and Ben-Gvir about their attitudes toward Arabs. He also challenges the minister over his conduct in the period before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination; Ben-Gvir says Rabin should not have been harmed.

The closing discussion brings a different disagreement into focus. Vilnai describes women's exclusion from public space. Ayala Ben-Gvir, the minister's wife, counters that advertising which uses women's bodies to sell products troubles her more. She argues that respect for individual choice must include respect for her own decisions about religious dress.

The exchange extends to gender separation and women serving in tanks alongside religious male soldiers. The episode finishes with a preview of further arguments about Gaza and the hostages, rather than a resolution to the differences raised inside the house.

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