Send terrorists to the electric chair, says Israel's new extreme right minister
Terrorists should be sent to an electric chair, Israel's hardline right-wing national security minister has said following a string of attacks.
Itamar Ben-Gvir said at a meeting of his Otzma Yehudit party: "Anyone who murders, harms and slaughters civilians should be sent to the electric chair."
On Thursday, Israeli forces carried out one of its deadliest raids in decades on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing 10 residents and pushing the death toll of Palestinians in January to 35.
The next day, a Palestinian gunman killed seven Israelis outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem in the worst such attack in recent memory. He had no known links to militant groups.
Israeli settlers (L) carrying Israeli flags stand next to an activist holding a Palestinian flag (R) (ATEF SAFADI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Following both attacks, violent incidents were then reported over the weekend in Jerusalem and the West Bank, with fights between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
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Mr Ben-Gvir’s comments came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel to urge de-escalation as many fear that the region is on the brink of an intifada – a Palestinian uprising.
The first two intifada's left several thousand people dead.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Mr Blinken and called for more citizens to carry guns as a precaution against attacks, but also warned against vigilante violence.
Israeli minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir (Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)Mr Ben-Gvir is an extremist minister who once kept a picture of a mass-murdering Jewish terrorist on display in his living room.
He joined Mr Netanyahu’s newly elected coalition government on the condition that he would be able to introduce the death penalty for terrorism offences.
Since its founding, Israel has only carried out one execution which was of a Nazi in 1962. Currently, the death penalty is only for treason, genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people during wartime.
Mr Ben-Gvir was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing a group considered by Israel and the US to be a terrorist organisation.
Israeli left-wing peace activists and Palestinians take part in a demonstration against evictions (Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry previously said, should he get a position of high standing it would have a “potentially catastrophic impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and hinder the revival of negotiations between the two sides.
Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst at International Crisis Group, said of Mr Ben-Gvir: “Israel is moving more and more powers that were normally held by the defence ministry or military to civilian ministries."
Netanyahu's government is the most rightwing and anti-Arab government in the country’s history.
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