Ben Gvir’s Death Penalty Bill is an ABOMINATION.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s proposed death penalty bill for terrorists is an abject abomination for Israel and for twenty-first-century Judaism. As a former Jewish prison chaplain and co-founder of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” – an international group comprising thousands of members – I am keenly aware of this reality.

We began L’chaim five years ago during the federal execution spree of the United States government under convicted felon Donald Trump’s first presidential administration. As a Jewish chaplain for the federal government, I could not conscience my government and employer putting human beings to death against their will. Since that time, L’chaim’s members like me have corresponded and communicated with just about all of the over 100 human beings – Jewish and non-Jewish – who have been put to death in the United States. We have witnessed first-hand the psychological and often physical torture that state and federal governments have carried out in the bastardized name of “justice.”

L’chaim has devoted well over one hundred Times of Israel blog posts to detailing why twenty-first century Judaism – in the shadow of the Holocaust – must recognize that when it comes to capital punishment, to quote Elie Wiesel, “death is not the answer.” In L’chaim’s first post, we stated outright that “The Death Penalty is an Abomination.” Now, with Israel’s Knesset debating enacting Ben Gvir’s medieval bill, the current moment justifies the use of this potent language yet again.

An “abomination,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “something that causes disgust or hatred.” Few other words capture the essence of the death penalty proposal. L’chaim has outlined ad nauseam the multiple reasons why the death penalty merits the employment of this extreme descriptor. We recently delineated these points in a Hanukkah post enumerating in detail “8 Reasons to Vote Against the Death Penalty this Hanukkah.”

Those explanations include the fact that the death penalty will increase – not decrease – terrorist attacks, risks executing the innocent, does not bring “deterrence,” is racist in its application, violates the human right to life, often results in physical torture, always is psychological torture, and – from Adolph Hitler to Trump to Ben Gvir – is used as a political tool, particularly for election campaigns. We also illustrated how Jewish tradition makes the death penalty virtually impossible, and how many execution methods are direct Nazi legacies, including firing squad, gassing, and lethal injection.

Signing this monstrosity into law not only imperils any of Israel’s remaining global moral standing in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War, but it threatens to fuel the flames of antisemitic violence and killings throughout the world. In response to L’chaim’s Hanukkah post mentioned above, one of our members in Israel, Karine Omry, co-founder of the Death Row Soul Collective, made the following astute comment:

“Israel distinguishes itself from terrorists by following the law and exercising restraint after violence has ended. The death penalty blurs this difference, replacing justice with revenge and weakening Israel’s moral standing.”

Beyond this impending moral disaster for the state of Israel, through this bill, Ben-Gvir – an ostensibly observant Jew – violates the heart of Jewish values: the centrality of life itself. Esteemed Orthodox Rabbi Yitz Greenberg reiterated this point in his recent op-ed for the Jerusalem Post in which he argued that Ben-Gvir’s cheapening of life through the death penalty is at direct odds with Judaism’s inherent reverence for life. As Greenberg concluded, “in degrading terrorists and criminals, Itamar Ben-Gvir is trashing Jewish religious values and cheapening everybody’s life.”

Such dehumanization by the Israeli government will propel antisemites the world over to claim victory and vindication in their vile canards equating Judaism with a death cult, no doubt increasing the threat of anti-Jewish violence. It likewise would only create more shahids – “martyrs” – among Israel’s enemies. As 19th-century philosopher Eliphas Levi famously wrote: “Every head that falls upon the scaffold may be honored and praised as the head of a martyr.” A mandatory death sentence for Palestinians who murder Jews will almost certainly increase the number of terrorist attacks, perpetuating the cycle of violence and killing. The “disgust and hatred” that this abomination will – by definition – generate will indeed be lethal, perpetuating an unending cycle of death.

The political ambition and thirst for vengeance of Ben Gvir and his fellow proponents of death shutters their eyes to these realities. They refuse to accept this truth, instead projecting their anger and fear by lashing out at those who would dare confront them. True to form, Ben Gvir recently bullied Einat Ovadia, the executive director of the Israeli human rights group Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, during a Knesset debate over his party’s proposed law. Ovadia respectfully asserted before the National Security Committee that the global trend has been to reduce the use of the death penalty. “You are going to invent a new role in Israel — executioner,” she said. In response, Ben Gvir called her a “supporter of murderers,” accused her of having a “twisted morality,” asked her why she objected to executing murderers, and charged her with accepting European Union funding. He concluded that Ovadia’s anti-death penalty stance made her a “Hamas supporter,” an allegation that he repeatedly yelled as he pointed disparagingly at her, all while his infamous noose-shaped lapel pin was on full display for the world to see. Many in the Jewish world seem to dismiss Ben Gvir and his political theatrics as beyond the pale, minimizing his death fetish as a fantasy that reasonable minds will halt, as if it were a foregone conclusion. The fact that the bill passed its first reading in the Knesset and that Prime Minister Netanyahu supports it betrays any such downplaying of this very real existential threat to Israel’s reputation and Jewish safety. It behooves the Jewish world to mobilize as earnestly as possible against this betrayal of Jewish and Israeli values before it is too late. L’chaim members already have witnessed far too many government killing sprees. We shall not stand by silently while the government of Israel threatens another such abomination. Instead, we shall continue to chant vociferously: L’chaim – to Life!

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM, BCC

Co-Founder: L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty

Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action