Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he received “100 calls from doctors” who told him: “Just tell me when.” His comment came ahead of a key debate on Israel’s proposed death penalty law for Palestinians.
Members of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party arrived at the Knesset on Monday wearing noose-shaped pins. Ben-Gvir said the pins reflect the party’s commitment to pushing the death penalty law forward.
“We all came with this pin,” he said. “It is one of the options we have when we pass the death penalty law for terrorists. There is the gallows. There is the electric chair. There is also anesthesia.” He said doctors had contacted him after earlier reports that medical professionals would refuse to participate. “I received 100 calls from doctors saying, ‘Itamar, just tell me when.’”
The proposal comes from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party. Ben-Gvir called the vote a “historic step” and urged all coalition and opposition parties to support it.
The bill calls for the death penalty for anyone Israel accuses of causing the death of a Jewish Israeli “intentionally or through indifference,” when motivated by “hatred of Israel.” It blocks any future reduction of a final death sentence.
Israeli lawyer Khaled Mahajneh told Al Jazeera that the bill targets Palestinian detainees only. It does not apply to Jewish Israelis who committed similar crimes against Palestinians. He called the proposal racist and discriminatory.
Mahajneh said the draft law allows Israeli judges to issue a death sentence by majority vote, not by unanimous decision. He described this as a “serious attack on judicial safeguards” and said it has no precedent in legislation that deals with the right to life.
Mahajneh added that the core purpose of the law is to expand Israel’s legal killing powers against Palestinians. He said Israel already kills detainees inside prisons and army camps, and the law aims to turn these acts into state-approved executions. He said the legislation “does not rely on any legal logic, only on the logic of revenge.”
He added that the political atmosphere since October 7, 2023 created a climate of incitement and retaliation. He said Israel has spent months carrying out practices that resemble executions inside prisons through starvation, medical neglect, and abuse. “There is no real need for such a law except to give these practices legal cover,” he said.
The Israeli news site Walla reported on Monday that Israel has effectively executed 110 Palestinian hostages under extreme torture inside Israeli interrogation and detention centers. The report intensified fears that the proposed law will expand an already deadly system.
