Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned on Monday of a growing process of “brutalisation” within Israeli society, prompting a sharp rebuke from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and exposing widening political divisions.
Speaking during the Jerusalem Unity Prize 2026 ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Herzog said Israeli society was experiencing a dangerous rise in violence and dehumanisation.
“I wish I could speak today only about unity,” Herzog said. “But to my great sorrow, we are living through days in which violence is not the only thing rearing its head.”
He warned that a “terrible process of brutalisation” was spreading from the margins of Israeli society and risked becoming normalised.
“It is a slow and disturbing process, one that threatens to enter the mainstream of Israeli society, and we will not allow it,” he added.
As examples of growing violence, Herzog pointed to increasing murder rates among Arab citizens in Israel and attacks carried out by what he described as a “lawless mob” in the occupied West Bank.
Herzog’s remarks triggered immediate criticism from Ben-Gvir, whose actions against the participants of a Gaza-bound flotilla held in Israeli detention have drawn widespread global condemnation.
Ben-Gvir who accused the president of insulting Israeli citizens.
“A president who calls hundreds of thousands of citizens of the State of Israel beasts is not fit to be president. Period,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on the US social media company X.
Lawmakers from Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party also criticised Herzog’s comments, accusing him of further deepening political divisions within Israeli society. – AA
