Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted a video on social media showing the construction of a gallows facility where Palestinians convicted of terror offences will be executed by hanging, drawing fresh international condemnation amid an already volatile diplomatic climate. In the footage, filmed at an undisclosed location reportedly near a prison, Ben-Gvir points to foundations being laid and declares: "This is where terrorists will be executed. We will have a gallows, and rooms where victims' families can come and watch — just like in the United States." The video, framed in the style of an electoral campaign advertisement ahead of Israeli general elections scheduled for October, was accompanied by the minister boasting that he had kept his political promises.
The facility is being built in response to a law passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in March this year by 62 votes to 48. The legislation makes the death penalty the default sentence in military courts for certain terror-related offences — but its scope is, in practice, confined to Palestinians. While it does not explicitly name Palestinians, it applies only to cases tried in military courts and involving attacks motivated by the "intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel." Jewish Israelis, including settlers living in the occupied West Bank — Palestinian territory under Israeli military control since 1967 — are tried under civilian Israeli law, effectively placing them beyond the law's reach. Human rights organisation Amnesty International condemned the law as fundamentally discriminatory, saying it "dismantles fundamental safeguards to prevent the arbitrary deprivation of life" and "further empowers Israel's system of apartheid." Israel rejects the apartheid characterisation, arguing that differences in legal treatment stem from security concerns and questions of nationality rather than race.
Ben-Gvir also visited the Damoun prison, near Haifa in northern Israel, where Palestinian women are held on security-related charges. There, he told detainees who complained about conditions that suffering was to be expected, adding mockingly that prisoners had previously "relied on hotels" and were now "very surprised" to find conditions had worsened. He presented the hardened prison environment as part of a deterrence policy linked to the new death penalty law, claiming Palestinian detainees now "fear" execution. Israel has only executed two people in its entire history — Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, hanged in 1962 following a trial in Jerusalem, and a soldier convicted of treason in 1948.
The gallows video is the latest in a series of provocations by Ben-Gvir, who holds convictions for incitement to racism, interfering with a police officer, and supporting the Kach movement — a banned extremist organisation. Last Sunday, he called for Israel to carry out "30 to 40 targeted assassinations per night" in Gaza, including people who, in his words, "don't deserve to live." Those remarks prompted French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to call them "unacceptable and inhuman," while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz strongly condemned what he called "inhumane appeals" that violate international law — a notable step for Germany, which has historically been cautious about criticising Israel given its responsibility for the Holocaust. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the comments as "appalling," "outrageous" and "dehumanising." Ben-Gvir is currently subject to sanctions from the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and Norway.
The minister's actions come amid broader international pressure on Israel. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy issued a joint statement this week condemning Israeli government plans to expand the E1 settlement block east of Jerusalem — a development that critics warn would physically sever the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem, which Palestinians envision as the capital of a future state. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires in protest, calling the move "an unacceptable and destructive act" and a "flagrant breach of international law." For many observers, Ben-Gvir's gallows video — and the applause it was designed to generate domestically — underscores the deepening gulf between Israel's current political direction and the expectations of its international partners.