Israeli MP: Palestinians should be killed for waste-burning

An Israeli parliamentary committee discussion about illegal waste-burning escalated to one MP calling for the killing of Palestinians who set fire to waste, according to the Middle East Eye and agencies on December 3rd.

This proposal was made by Zvi Sukkot on December 3rd; Sukkot is a member of the Jewish Power Party (Otzma Yehudit), which is led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

According to Sukkot, “The Air Force needs to act and kill them.” Committee chairman and fellow Jewish Power member, Yitzhak Kreuzer, agreed with Sukkot, as did the Environment Minister Idit Silman, of the ruling Likud Party.

Israel is governed by a coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All three politicians justified their position by claiming that waste burning constituted “terrorism“, a term that Ben-Gvir also applies to officials from the Palestinian Authority.

Ben-Gvir has been an advocate of a bill which would impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis on “nationalistic grounds”, which appears to not apply to Israelis convicted of similar crimes.

The bill passed its first reading in the Knesset on November 10th, with two subsequent readings required before it becomes law. A statement from the National Security Committee said the bill’s “purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”

It is unclear if Ben-Gvir’s designation of officials as “terrorists” would make them eligible for the death penalty, although he has previously stated that Palestinian detainees “deserve a death penalty law.”

Support for the executions of Palestinians who burn waste reflects a shift towards an increasingly blatant disregard for Palestinian life within Israeli politics.

Within the Knesset, some members, such as the deputy speaker Nissim Vaturi, have expressed support for the Jewish supremacist rabbi Meir Kahane, who is widely viewed as the inspiration for Baruch Goldstein, a terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians in 1994.

In October, 55 ministers and Knesset members, including Ben-Gvir, signed a letter which urged President Isaac Herzog to pardon Israelis convicted of murdering Palestinians.

What’s more, Jewish Power member, Limor Son Har-Melech, told Ynet: “There is no moral justification for keeping Jews in prison who, even if they made a mistake, pose no danger to the public.”

In July 2024, Har-Melech was present at the storming of a prison by far-right Israelis, who were opposing the arrest of nine soldiers accused of torturing and Palestinian detainee. The soldiers had been accused of assault and rape.

Middle East Eye and agencies, Maghrebi.org