Is it Misogyny or just a gun policy? What did Ayala Ben Gvir say?

 

Sara Netanyahu (C) meets with the wives of several of the prospective coalition members Yaffa Deri (2L), Maoz (L), Ayala Ben Gvir (2R) and Rivka Goldknopf (R) on November 14, 2022. Ben Gvir can be seen with a hand gun tucked into her skirt. (Likud)

On November 14th, Ben Gvir's wife Ayala brought a gun to a meeting with the coalition leaders' spouses in Jerusalem hosted by Sara Netanyahu. Ayala known as the wife of far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir, was met with controversy shortly after the photo of her with the gun being visible was published by the Likud party to social media.  In response to the criticism Ayala put out a statement to "deal with it" followed by "I live in Hebron, am a mother of six sweet children, drive on terror-hit roads and am married to the most threatened man in the country, so yeah, I have a pistol," she wrote on Twitter.

 

To my unfortunate luck, this ''News'' was discussed in class last week, which emerged a lengthy discussion of why it was controversial. Although a lot of possibilities came up such as her being a woman, and how society perceives women in certain gendered roles that seethed with misogynistic sentiments. Others didn't see any controversy at all, concluding that it was an act of self-defense against terrorist attacks. But one that really sparked the discussion was whether her posing with the gun, was a symbol that showcased violence or not, especially since her husband is has a history of wanting to indicate gun violence against Arabs and promoting it too.

 

Now when it came to me, I felt being put in an uncomfortable situation where the obvious to me was stated, yet it was met with comments that felt invalidating of what a different eye could view this particular situation. While to others Ben Givr can be viewed as a party candidate, to me he is a fascist and an extremist. A person who faced multiple charges of hate crimes against Arabs, and a person who proudly flaunts a portrait of a terrorist that committed a massacre in the Ibrahimi Mosque, leaving 29 worshipers dead and 125 wounded. Keeping all these things in mind, watching his family including him presented in the media with a gun, symbolically viewed as a violent thing around the world, threatening to use it multiple times on Arab citizens in unsettling, let alone his wife also being a public figure part of this family that has influence over many people, that could lead to dangerous outcomes. Ironically her response to the criticism was contradicting, since she is part of this far right image in the public eye that is targeting people simply for being who they're, she claims it was an act of a self-defense against "terrorists" while living as a settler in a settlement that is considered by the UN to be illegal, how ironic.