The photograph is astonishing. This Saturday, Could 2, the Minister of Nationwide SafetyIsrael, Itamar Ben Gvircelebrated his fiftieth birthday (he can have them on Could 6) with nice fanfare. On the videos broadcast on social networks, we see the minister’s spouse, Ayala Ben Gvir, bringing him a cake on that are drawn a noose, a logo of hanging, and the inscriptions “Mazel tov to Minister Ben Gvir, typically desires come true. »
A picture – hanging in such a festive context – which is controversial in Israel and recollects the pin, with the identical hangman’s knot, that the minister has worn for a number of months on his jacket on every of his outings.
Fervent defender of the demise penalty in opposition to Palestinians
This staging comes a month after the adoption by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, of a controversial legislation authorizing “the demise penalty by hanging for residents of the West Financial institution discovered responsible by army courts of murderous terrorist acts”. A legislation supposed, based on its detractors, to authorize the demise penalty arbitrarily for arrested and imprisoned Palestinians.
This legislation, Itamar Ben Gvir and his far-right social gathering, Otzma Yehudit, fiercely defended it. And it’s on this context that from December 8, the minister started to put on this sinister pin. The Netanyahu authorities minister’s workplace clearly defined on the time that these knots symbolize “the MPs’ dedication to the demise penalty for terrorists.”
The minister then defined it himself, including that the gallows was not the one resolution: “There’s additionally the electrical chair and euthanasia. »
Helps annexation of Gaza and settlement within the West Financial institution
Earlier than the legislation was handed on March 30, the demise penalty was reserved for very uncommon instances in Israel and had solely been utilized as soon as within the nation’s historical past, in 1962, with the hanging of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of many architects of the Holocaust.
The legislation having been handed, the police chief continues to brandish this image. Recognized for his anti-Palestinian positions, he has all the time declared himself in favor of the deportation of Gazans and the annexation of the Gaza Strip in addition to the continued institution of colonies within the occupied West Financial institution.
His celebration, which occurred in Moshav Emunim, within the south of Israel, is the image since a second cake displayed firearms, in reference to the relief of constraints on the carrying of weapons carried by the minister after October 7. There was additionally a map which, based on the media Tenoua, is that of Erets Yisrael haShlema (“higher Israel”), which erases the West Financial institution.
Sanctioned by the nation’s Supreme Court docket
Along with these symbols, the night sparked a full of life controversy with the presence, based on The Occasions of Israel, of senior officers of the Israeli police, posing moral issues for officers who should, as a part of their duties, respect political neutrality. A number of Israeli officers had been moved, together with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
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It’s this affect on the police which led the Israeli Supreme Court docket in mid-April to briefly restrict the minister’s capability to nominate senior officers throughout the police. Itamar Ben Gvir responded that he would proceed to nominate individuals who apply his insurance policies, as he has executed till now.
