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The impunity granted to Israel is as shocking as its violence

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Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, during a news conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, on, 05 February , 2024 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

by Ramona Wadi  walzerscent

More incitement to violence from Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir exposes how colonial violence is aimed at the entire colonised population. Speaking on a podcast with former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, Ben Gvir said that Israeli forced should kill 30-40 Palestinians each night in Gaza. 

Braslavski requested to act as executioner should Ben Gvir’s plan come to pass, to which the security minister replied, “I will turn the world upside down to make that happen. I promise you that I will do everything I can and turn the world upside down until it happens.”

As shocking as the comments are, both are the product of an enterprise that knows it can only sustain itself through ethnic cleansing.

In 2025, a poll by the Hebrew University Centre showed that 87 per cent of the Israeli government’s supporters perceived “no innocents’ in Gaza, while 64 per cent of Israelis held the same view.

Israel’s Channel 14 branded all Palestinians killed during the genocide as terrorists. Among settlers that normalise the killings of Palestinians, and which even glorifies those murdering them, Ben Gvir’s comments are unlikely to elicit any lingering shock. On the contrary, Ben Gvir’s wish for extrajudicial killings may well find willing participants. And while Gaza remains within reach of the Israeli military in terms of extrajudicial assassinations, the occupied West Bank faces both Israeli institutions and settlers.

READ: Extremist Israeli minister says “30 to 40” Gazans should be killed every day

Ben Gvir’s comments were aimed at Gaza, but Israel’s colonisation plans do not only include Gaza. The occupied West Bank, which faces daily violence from settlers, is much at risk from extrajudicial killings. In Ras al-Ain, south of Nablus, Israeli settlers besieged Palestinian families and cut off their electricity, water and food supplies. While attracting international attention, the UN as usual preferred to rely on its usual condemnations while Erika Guevara Ross, Amnesty International Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, described the siege as “an accelerating and well-documented pattern of coordinated and strategic settler terror, enabled, backed and funded by the State of Israel.” True, but what is being done with the information that is already mainstream knowledge to the rest of the world?

Likewise, Ben Gvir’s comments have not prompted a reckoning with world leaders or international institutions. Israel has already internalised such thinking – it thrives upon creating victims to sustain itself. The international community, supposedly a reference for human rights under the UN, does not seem to consider Ben Gvir’s threats dangerous enough. Even though Israel has a proven history of torturing and killing Palestinians. 

Killing 30-40 Palestinians per night is not merely a fantasy. It has already been carried out by the Israeli military during the genocide; also exceeding that quota. Ben Gvir has also found someone willing to carry out the assassinations, even on a much larger scale. For Israel, as Ben Gvir again elucidated, Palestinians “are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

If, according to Ben Gvir, killing Palestinians is killing non-people, then Israel is already completely absolved of culpability. This is the type of impunity the UN is harvesting for Israel. 

BLOG: Israel’s imaginings of forced displacement, and UN culpability

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.

Continue ReadingThe impunity granted to Israel is as shocking as its violence

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder: Report

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A view of Sde Teiman prison in the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip, in Negev, Israel on January 10, 2025. [ Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing – replete with an execution chamber – designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday.

The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted – by military court – of murdering Israelis.

According to the news channel, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has unveiled plans for Israel’s first prison wing designated exclusively for prisoners facing a death sentence.

The wing is currently under construction in central Israel, the channel reported.

Ben-Gvir’s office said the facility will include an execution chamber, along with areas for families of those Israel describes as “victims” of alleged Palestinian violence, according to the report.

READ: Smotrich says defeating Hamas requires Israeli control and settlements in Gaza

The news channel did not say when construction of the facility is expected to be completed.

In video footage filmed at the construction site, Ben-Gvir declared: “We promised and fulfilled our pledge to pass a death penalty law for terrorists.”

Under the new legislation, Palestinians convicted by military courts of killing Israelis will face a mandatory death sentence unless the court finds that exceptional circumstances warrant a commutation of the sentence, i24NEWS reported.

Death sentences issued under the law can be appealed, the channel said.

Since the legislation was approved in March, no Palestinian prisoners have been sentenced to death.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and several countries have condemned the Israeli law.

According to i24NEWS, Israel has carried out the death penalty only once in its history: in 1962, when Adolf Eichmann, a leading Nazi official, was executed.

READ: EU urges Israel to comply with international law after Ben-Gvir’s remarks on killing Gazans

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.

Continue ReadingIsrael builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder: Report

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes, shelters in West Bank

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Israeli forces demolished homes, shelters, livestock pens and water wells in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

The demolitions affected structures belonging to several Palestinian families.

Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes and facilities in the West Bank under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Palestinians say Israeli authorities impose severe restrictions that prevent them from obtaining building permits, while expanding illegal settlements on occupied land.

According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities carried out 341 demolitions in the first half of this year, destroying 740 Palestinian structures and affecting 923 Palestinians. It said Israel also issued 254 new demolition notices over alleged unlicensed construction.

READ: Israel survey: 38% of Jewish Israelis support annexing West Bank, 22% favour ‘relocation’ of Palestinians to other countries

International humanitarian law prohibits the destruction of civilian property except in cases of absolute military necessity under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

On Feb. 18, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli demolitions in 2025 displaced more than 1,700 Palestinians.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have escalated since Israel launched its genocide in Gaza in October 2023. According to official Palestinian figures, more than 1,182 Palestinians have been killed, around 13,000 injured and nearly 24,000 arrested in the occupied territory during the same period.

READ: 47 Palestinian families face imminent displacement in West Bank as Israel cuts water supplies: Rights group

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.

Continue ReadingIsraeli forces demolish Palestinian homes, shelters in West Bank

‘More drilling means more heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and suffering’

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/more-drilling-means-more-heatwaves-droughts-wildfires-and-suffering

 Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to staff at the met office in Exeter, to discuss the UK’s ongoing response to extreme heat, wildfires and drought, August 14, 2026

Burnham urged to stand up to the fossil fuel giants and reject plans to drill Britain’s largest untapped oil fields

PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham was urged to stand up to profiteering fossil fuel giants and reject plans to drill Britain’s largest untapped oil field as consultations on them drew to a close today.

Labour faces a key environmental test as the final decision over the future of the Rosebank oil field, which lies about 80 miles west of Shetland, is left with ministers.

Production at both Rosebank and Jackdaw had been approved by the previous Conservative government, but those decisions were quashed after a legal challenge from Greenpeace, leaving the government to decide whether or not drilling should go ahead.

The decision on the two projects comes after a summer that has seen soaring temperatures and devastating wildfires in both Britain and Europe.

Environmentalists warn that allowing the development of the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, whose consultation ended last week, would produce more than 250 million tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to 70 per cent of Britain’s annual emissions.

Greenpeace campaigner Maja Darlington said: “The PM wants to be pragmatic, but there is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it. 

“More drilling means more heatwaves, more droughts, more wildfires, and more suffering for the communities Burnham represents. The climate crisis is already hitting working people hardest — firefighters on the front line, bus drivers exposed to inhumane heat, nurses collapsing on the job. 

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/more-drilling-means-more-heatwaves-droughts-wildfires-and-suffering

Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Continue Reading‘More drilling means more heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and suffering’

PM urged to stick to spirit of Labour manifesto and reject Jackdaw and Rosebank

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pm-urged-stick-spirit-labour-manifesto-and-reject-jackdaw-and-rosebank

 Climate activists from Greenpeace and Uplift during a demonstration outside the Scottish Court of Session, Edinburgh, on the first day of the Rosebank and Jackdaw judicial review hearing, November 12, 2024

STICK to the spirit of Labour’s manifesto commitments, climate campaigners told the Prime Minister as the public consultation on Rosebank closes on Monday.

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) demanded Andy Burnham block proposed new North Sea oil fields, claiming their lifetime carbon emissions could result in up to 65,495 excess heat deaths by the end of this century.

Made up of more than 70 organisations with a total of about one million supporters, SCCS wrote an open letter to Mr Burnham and his Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh ahead of the consultation closure for Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea which lies some 80 miles north-west of Shetland.

A similar exercise for the planned Jackdaw gas field, which lies in waters about 150 miles east of Aberdeen, finished on August 10.

Production for both fields had been approved by the previous Conservative government, but a legal challenge from Greenpeace has now left the current government to decide whether or not drilling should go ahead.

SCCS reminded the new PM, who recently issued a temporary ban on the sale of disposable barbecues and brought in the military to help deal with wildfires, that 2,700 excess deaths were linked to heatwaves in May and June alone.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pm-urged-stick-spirit-labour-manifesto-and-reject-jackdaw-and-rosebank

Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingPM urged to stick to spirit of Labour manifesto and reject Jackdaw and Rosebank