Israel’s Noose Law Backfires; Ben-Gvir May Have Screwed Them All

Ben-Gvir wanted the noose to frighten Palestinians; instead it has given campaigners a list of Israeli lawmakers to put in the sanctions frame. Right, so Israel’s horrific National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has I am sad to report, just turned 50, but as him reaching this milestone will hardly have you rushing to the card aisle of Tesco’s, it’s not necessarily been the best one for him and in fact it has somehow become a better exhibit against him and his beliefs than anything his opponents could have possibly designed. His wife Ayala there presenting him with a cake decorated with a hanging noose and the message, “Mazal tov to Minister Ben-Gvir, sometimes dreams come true,” because apparently the man who wants Palestinians facing the gallows also wanted his own birthday treat to look like a police evidence photo. The noose of course was not random decoration. It was a reference to the death penalty law Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party have championed, a law Israel’s parliament has now passed, a law that is for Palestinians only, a death penalty only Palestinians face, an apartheid death penalty, as death penalties are not egregious in and of themselves, somehow Israel manages to make even that low bar even worse. Ben-Gvir wants that noose to look like strength, deterrence, vengeance and whatever other psychotically sanitised little label they want to stick on it after he’s blown his candles out.