Ben Gvir Unveils Gallows With Viewing Booths for Families

Ben Gvir Unveils Gallows With Viewing Booths for Families

Itamar Ben Gvir wanted cameras there for this one. In a video released this week from an undisclosed prison site in central Israel, the National Security Minister walked through a wing under construction and pointed to where the gallows will stand. "We are making history," he said. "Terrorists deserve only one thing: death by hanging." It's the most concrete step yet in a policy Ben Gvir has been building toward since taking office, and it arrives in the same week he separately called for killing dozens of people in Gaza every night, a comment that drew condemnation from multiple governments.

What's Actually Being Built

According to Ben Gvir's office, the facility includes a dedicated wing where condemned prisoners will be transferred to await execution, with the gallows positioned at its center. The design also includes viewing booths where victims of terror attacks and their families can watch hangings take place, which Ben Gvir has described as standard practice in other countries, including the United States. The exact location of the site hasn't been disclosed. Earlier this year, he appointed six bereaved family members from an advocacy group as official inspectors under the law authorizing the executions, giving them formal oversight power over how death sentences are carried out.

The Law Behind the Gallows

The facility exists to enforce the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, which the Knesset passed 62-48 on March 30, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the vote in person to support it. The law mandates death sentences for attacks classified as terrorism and aimed at "ending Israel's existence," requires executions to be carried out within 90 days of sentencing, and provides no right of appeal. Critics, including some Israeli commentators, have noted the law's specific wording effectively limits its application almost exclusively to Palestinians, since the "ending Israel's existence" framing rarely if ever applies to attacks carried out by Jewish Israelis. Human Rights Watch wrote that the law "aims to kill Palestinian detainees faster and with less scrutiny," and four United Nations special rapporteurs jointly called it "a grave escalation in Israel's discriminatory oppression of Palestinians," demanding its repeal.

The Same Week, a Separate Comment Drew International Condemnation

Days before the gallows video, Ben Gvir appeared on the debut episode of a podcast hosted by Rom Braslavski, an Israeli previously held hostage by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza for roughly two years. Criticizing what he called Netanyahu's scaled-back military operations in Gaza amid an internationally backed peace process, Ben Gvir said targeted assassinations should be carried out there nightly. "I think we should carry out targeted assassinations in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night," he said, adding that the policy shouldn't be limited to people who pose an immediate threat. The remarks drew public condemnation from Germany, France, and United Nations officials. Ben Gvir does not have command authority over Israel's military and cannot personally order strikes.

In the Same Conversation, Braslavski Asked to Personally Carry Out an Execution

Later in the same podcast, Braslavski asked Ben Gvir directly whether he could personally execute the captors who had held him. "Let me be the one who hangs them," Braslavski said, adding he would carry it out with his own hands. Ben Gvir responded that he would "turn the world upside-down" to make that happen, calling the execution of Palestinian prisoners one of his "greatest dreams." It's the kind of exchange that, paired with the gallows announcement days later, has made this particular week a flashpoint even by the standard of a minister who has built his political career on maximalist rhetoric toward Palestinians.

This Isn't a New Persona for Ben Gvir

Ben Gvir's political identity has been built on this kind of provocation for three decades. A follower of Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was banned in Israel and designated a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States, Ben Gvir first drew national attention in 1995 when he brandished a hood ornament stolen from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's car on television, declaring, "we got to his car, and we'll get to him too." Rabin was assassinated by a far-right extremist weeks later. Ben Gvir was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement and supporting a terrorist organization, with a criminal record reported at roughly 13 convictions, before Netanyahu appointed him to run Israel's police and prison system in December 2022. Israel's own Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under his leadership had been depriving Palestinian detainees of a minimum subsistence diet.

Why He's Doing This Now

Israeli national elections are scheduled for October 27, and Ben Gvir has been explicit that both the gallows and this week's Gaza comments are about delivering to his base rather than crafting new positions. In the gallows video, he ran through his campaign promises one by one: worsening conditions for terror convicts, passing the death penalty law, and now building the facility to enforce it. "I promised... it was fully carried out," he said, checking each box on camera. Framed against an election, the timing turns what might otherwise read as a purely security policy into a campaign advertisement built around the most severe punishment available under Israeli law.

Conclusion

Israel disputes the broader accusation, now before the International Court of Justice, that its conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide. But the specific facts of this week aren't seriously in dispute: a senior Israeli minister with direct authority over the prison system has shown cameras the gallows being built to carry out death sentences under a law UN experts call discriminatory, in the same week he called for dozens of nightly killings in Gaza and endorsed a former hostage's wish to personally hang prisoners. Whether that reads as a government delivering promised security policy or as an official broadcasting intent that international law was built specifically to prevent may depend on where someone already stood. What's no longer in question is that Ben Gvir wants both readings to reach the widest possible audience, cameras rolling, weeks before an election.