Send terrorists to electric chair, says Israeli hardliner
TERRORISTS should be sent to the electric chair, Itamar Ben-gvir, Israel’s hardline national security minister, said yesterday after a weekend in which a dozen Israelis were shot in Jerusalem.
“Anyone who murders, harms and slaughters civilians should be sent to the electric chair,” the extreme-right politician said at a meeting of his Otzma Yehudit party.
Mr Ben-gvir’s comments came as Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, landed in Tel Aviv to urge de-escalation amid boiling tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Seven people were shot dead in Friday’s attack by a man from East Jerusalem who was himself killed by police. Since praised by many fellow Palestinians, he had no known links to militant groups.
A day earlier, Israel carried out a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing 10 people, most of them gunmen. At least 35 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, have died in violence since Jan 1, medical officials say.
Mr Blinken said: “It is the responsibility of everyone to take steps to calm tensions rather than inflame them.”
He added that Friday’s shooting near a synagogue “was more than an attack on individuals. It was also an attack on the universal act of practising one’s faith. We condemn it in the strongest terms.
“And we condemn those who celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism that take innocent lives, no matter who the victim is or what they believe.
“Calls for vengeance against more innocent victims are not the answer.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who met Mr Blinken yesterday, has called for more citizens to carry guns as a precaution against such street attacks. However, he has also warned the public not to resort to vigilante violence.
Mr Ben-gvir made the introduction of the death penalty for terrorism offences a precondition of his party joining Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government.
Since its founding, Israel has carried out only one execution – that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962.