Israel’s Ben-Gvir calls for Palestinian prisoner death penalty

Israel’s right-wing National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for the death penalty to be used against Palestinian prisoners, according to a report by the Middle East Eye via agencies on October 23rd.

He was filmed standing in front of a cell where Palestinians were shackled and kneeling in stress positions. He told the camera that Palestinian detainees “deserve a death penalty law.” His comments came amid parliamentary debates over the imposition of the death penalty on people convicted of terrorism.

Ben-Gvir oversees prison affairs, and under his supervision, Palestinians have suffered what the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PSS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs have called “the worst levels of torture and abuse.”

He has long expressed a desire to execute Palestinian detainees, including on June 30th, 2024, when he urged the Knesset to pass a bill allowing for the execution of prisoners with a “shot to the head.” This was just days after Ben-Gvir’s department was accused of illegally distributing weapons licenses to Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank.

The leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party, Ben-Gvir, was previously filmed threatening a Palestinian prisoner in footage that emerged on August 14th. He warned the detainee that Israel would “obliterate” any opponents.

On September 8th, it was reported that Ben-Gvir denounced a verdict from Israel’s Supreme Court, which found that Palestinian security prisoners were being denied basic nutrition in Israeli jails.

It was estimated on August 13th that 10,800 people were detained in Israeli prisons, the highest number in 25 years. Over a third of detainees were held without charge or trial.

Ben-Gvir was sanctioned by several nations, including the UK, on June 10th over his open contempt for Palestinian life. The sanctions included an asset freeze and travel ban; these conditions also applied to Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Ben-Gvir has a history of anti-Palestinian views, including his involvement in the since-banned Kach movement as a teenager.

Kach was founded by Zionist extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, and was the inspiration for Jewish supremacist terrorist, Baruch Goldstein, who murdered 29 Palestinians in a massacre at Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994.

Ben-Gvir has been known to glorify these terrorists, including allegedly hanging a portrait of Goldstein in his living room. He has also led 1,300 Israeli settlers on an incursion into Al-Aqsa Mosque. This was part of a broader campaign by settlers to increase Jewish presence in the mosque, which is one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Middle East Eye via agencies, Maghrebi.org