Israel's far right just demanded the two ministries needed to execute prisoners
3 days ago · 28 September 2026Share
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Knesset member.Shlomi Amsalem · CC BY-SA 4.0
Israel's National Security Minister just told a Palestinian prisoner he wants him executed.
Itamar Ben-Gvir posted the video himself, a few hours ago.
He filmed it inside a real prison cell. The prisoner is Hassan Salameh, held by Israel since 1996.
In the video, Ben-Gvir says quote "I want to execute you".
So who is Salameh? A military court gave him 46 life sentences plus 20 years. He bombed two buses in Jerusalem in 1996. 44 people died. He also hit Ashkelon Junction. Nearly 30 years in custody.
But this isn't just one video. Ben-Gvir wrote more, right alongside it.
He said if he becomes defence minister, he'll make sure prisoners like Salameh get executed.
And he said he'll push what he calls "voluntary migration" out of Gaza and the West Bank. That's his own term for removing Palestinians from both places. He's already laid out a plan to move 1.86 million people out of Gaza within seven years.
Now, Ben-Gvir runs Otzma Yehudit. Jewish Power. Five days ago, at a press conference in Jerusalem, he set his price for joining the next government.
Defence for himself. Justice for Tally Gotliv, another MK in his party. He even named who should replace him as National Security Minister — Yitzhak Wasserlauf.
So why those two ministries, specifically?
Because of what they control. Right now, Ben-Gvir already runs Israel's prisons and its police. Not the military.
Defence gets him past the police. Justice gets him the military courts — the ones that actually sentence Palestinians.
The rest of this story is for members.
Ofer Prison near Jerusalem.Magister · CC BY-SA 4.0
Together, those are the two levers he'd need to do what he's promising.
And the legal groundwork is already sitting there.
Israel's Knesset passed a law in March. Ben-Gvir pushed hard for it. It says a military court must hand down the death penalty for a terror attack that killed someone — unless special circumstances allow life in prison instead. It only applies to Palestinians tried in military courts. Not to Israeli citizens.
And about six weeks ago, Ben-Gvir announced something else. Ground had been broken on a gallows. With viewing booths, for victims' families.
He said terrorists would be executed by hanging.
Israel has used the death penalty exactly once before. Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, in 1962.
Here's the timing. Israel's election is 27 October. About a month away.
Ben-Gvir's demands are a bid to hold the balance of power once the votes are counted.
Likud has already pushed back on part of it. It says it won't give up defence or justice.
Beyond that, nothing yet. No response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Nothing from Palestinian officials, specifically on this video.
So what don't we know? Whether Netanyahu agrees to hand Ben-Gvir and his party those two ministries. Whether the rest of the coalition accepts the far right holding both. And whether any future government actually carries out an execution, even if every condition is met.
Ben-Gvir has said things like this before. Always in public. On video. On X. At press conferences. He has a past conviction for racist incitement.
What's different this time is how the pieces now line up. The law that allows it. The gallows being built. And a demand for the exact two ministries that would let him give the order.
Nothing here was paid for by an advertiser. Members are the entire business model. Bronze is where it starts, and it opens the last seven days in full.
