Ben-Gvir Boasts About Depriving Palestinian Prisoners and Pushes for Their Execution
Ben-Gvir Boasts About Depriving Palestinian Prisoners and Pushes for Their Execution
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has publicly spoken about his efforts to pass a law allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners by hanging, insisting that he will continue pushing for its approval and implementation.
But even more disturbing is the way he speaks about Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons.
Ben-Gvir boasts about changing the conditions of Palestinian detainees, contrasting what he describes as the “luxuries” they allegedly enjoyed in the past, including:
Jam
Chocolate
Television
Table tennis
Medical care
with his current policy of depriving prisoners of these conditions, reducing basic necessities, imposing harsher restrictions, and tightening the pressure on them.
And perhaps most disturbing of all, Ben-Gvir openly expresses satisfaction with their suffering.
This is no longer simply about “security.”
When the minister responsible for internal security takes pride in depriving prisoners of basic necessities while pushing for their execution, the issue goes beyond security measures and becomes an ideology of revenge built around humiliation and collective punishment.
In the rhetoric of the Israeli far right, the Palestinian prisoner is no longer treated as a human being with rights, but as a political instrument for demonstrating power to the Israeli public.
And the question that should be directed at the international community is:
How long can the world continue speaking about “human rights” and the “rule of law” while an Israeli government minister openly advocates executing prisoners and boasts about degrading their detention conditions?
If this is Ben-Gvir’s definition of “security,” then the problem is not only inside the prisons.