Ben Gvir’s Death Penalty Dream Is Israel’s Nightmare

Last week, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir once again provoked global recriminations when he posted an AI-generated TikTok video declaring he ‘dreams’ of nooses, celebrating a law that mandates death by hanging exclusively for Palestinian detainees. Co-opting a viral social media audio trend, Ben Gvir posted the video to his TikTok account on 4 May 2026, using the viral ‘I know I should sleep, but the voices in my head go…,” followed by an upbeat audio trend as its soundtrack. The footage consists entirely of AI-generated imagery: everyday objects, rendered in artificial detail, morphed into the shapes of gallows and hanging ropes. Text overlaid on the video declared that he dreams of the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners, using slang in Hebrew that translates directly to ‘I am dying to execute the terrorists.’

The clip spread rapidly across platforms, with commenters across the political spectrum expressing disbelief that a sitting government minister had produced and published such content. Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi responded directly, stating that Ben Gvir and his wife ‘need a psychiatrist immediately,’ adding: ‘Usually, people wish for a better future and love with a birthday cake, but these people sanctify hatred and death.’ Social media reactions ranged from accusations of incitement to calls for international legal accountability. One widely shared post read: ‘This is not normal behaviour; who dreams of killing people?’’

The TikTok video did not arrive without context. Just weeks earlier, on 18 March 2026, Ben Gvir had posted a separate, now deleted, video to X, standing in front of a visible gallows to deny rumours of his death, stating in Hebrew: ‘I am dead with longing to execute the terrorists. Death penalty for terrorists now!’ The terrorist organization Hamas described that post as ‘public incitement to killing’. It warned of repercussions, calling Ben Gvir’s repeated glorification of execution ‘an extremist mentality’ and demanding urgent international action to protect Palestinian detainees from what it called a policy of state killing.

We, the thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” from Israel and across the world, unequivocally condemn this latest display of the grotesque celebration of death and killing associated with Israel’s recently passed “Death Penalty for Terrorists” Law. Ben Gvir’s nightmarish dream sequence constitutes but the most recent example of how this law opens a veritable Pandora’s Box of death. The video arrived just two days after Ben Gvir’s 50th birthday party, where his wife Ayala presented him with a cake topped with a golden noose and the inscription ‘Congratulations Minister Ben Gvir, sometimes dreams come true.’

As Linda Dayan of Haaretz has rightfully argued, these kinds of charades are undoubtedly political maneuvers by Ben Gvir to grab headlines, even if as a target of loathing. In doing so, however, he continues to play with fire. His noose-laden dream and birthday cake are but the latest iterations of many similar ploys since the start of his death campaign. Taken together, they reveal just how dangerously far the Far Right has moved the needle of reason and respect for human rights in Israel.

Such debauched spectacles normally would not merit a response. Tragically, the level of bloodlust that permeates the present zeitgeist and the fact that this law has indeed come to fruition – while the Knesset now considers passing a second death penalty bill – necessitate our doing just that. Not to counter such displays would risk further normalizing them.

Ben Gvir’s Pre-Passover “To Death” Toast

An egregious previous example of this horrific kind of political theatre occurred on March 30, 2026, just before Passover, the most widely observed Jewish holiday. It was then that Ben Gvir celebrated the passing of his pet racist, dangerous, vengeful, and unjust death penalty law by raising a champagne bottle and drinking to victory. The customary toast in Jewish tradition, of course, is to exclaim “L’chaim!”, meaning “to Life!” Partly for this reason, the name chosen for the Jewish anti-death penalty group that now includes thousands of members in Israel and abroad is “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty.” Those MKs (Members of the Knesset) who support this law have upended the phrase meant to evoke Judaism’s core life-affirming principles.

While Ben Gvir claims to be a pious and observant Jew, his actions once again reveal his blatant disregard for Jewish values and mockery of Jewish ritual symbolism. He might as well have screamed “Lamavet” (“To Death”) for his celebratory toast. Make no mistake: the passage of this death penalty law will certainly bring death for both convicted terrorists and innocent Israelis and Jews across the world. It is an abject abomination that will prove disastrous, for multiple reasons. Among these, perhaps one of the most insidious is the fact that so many individuals the world over will now associate Ben Gvir’s yarmulke-covered physiognomy with Jews everyone, concluding that we all share his death-wish.

MK Limor Son Har-Melech’s Death Penalty Purim Costume

The manner in which Ben Gvir and his wife chose to celebrate his birthday with a baked centerpiece of death calls to mind how another member of the Knesset chose to dress for the festive holiday Purim earlier this year. MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) had herself photographed in the costume of what one Haaretz commentator has appropriately dubbed a “Death Eater” (of Harry Potter infamy) in the service of the state. The Israeli lawmaker was dressed in an Israel Prison Service jumpsuit, with a noose in one hand and a syringe of poison in the other. Next to her, in a white dress shirt, was her husband, Yehuda, packing an automatic rifle in what very well may have been an homage to the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein and wearing signs reading “expulsion,” “conquest,” and “settlement.” Indeed, if one such “Death Eater” were not enough for the aforementioned commentator, Ben Gvir’s symbolic eating of death for his birthday certainly would take the cake.)

Leaving aside the dangerous implications of Yehuda’s chosen garb, it behooves L’chaim to unpack the costume choice of the Member of Knesset. Her wardrobe selection was far worse than a fashion faux pas. Her shameless action celebrated lethal symbols, one of which – lethal injection – is an unquestionable and unconscionable direct Nazi legacy. Ben Gvir has often suggested this so-called “Nazi needle” as a means for state killing. This abject abomination represents the kind of legacy that any such death penalty bill would perpetuate.

MK Son Har-Melech’s costume, like Ben Gvir’s dream montage, birthday cake and his continuous wearing of a noose-shaped lapel to Knesset hearings and elsewhere in public, glorifies killing and sanctifies revenge in a manner that is not befitting of any civilized society.

The Death Penalty Brings out the “Worst of the Worst” in Humanity

Many supporters claim that society reserves capital punishment for  “the worst of the worst,” a patently false notion. The only “worst of the worst” that applies concerning lex talionis is the reality that the prospect of executions brings out the darkest aspects of human nature in all those who crave it: vengeance, bloodlust, the desire to inflict pain, suffering, and death. The man-made Angel of Death that is capital punishment inevitably carries each of these in spades. Ben Gvir’s macabre dream, birthday cake, and noose lapel pin, like MK Son Har-Melech’s deplorable Purim behavior and post, underscore this tragic truth. They unveil the vengeful intention that lies at the heart of the death penalty law that now goes before the Israeli Supreme Court for review, and the second bill now before the Knesset.

Before brandishing such gruesome symbols as a noose and a syringe on these celebratory occasions, Ben Gvir and Son Har-Melech might have taken a moment to realize the full, perilous implications of readers treating Purim’s Book of Esther as a literal guide for living in the twenty-first century. The example of Baruch Goldstein and brutal execution regimes like Iran reinforce this reality. L’chaim highlighted this juxtaposition in a post entitled Haman and his 10 Sons: 11 Reasons to Oppose Israel’s Death Penalty this Purim. We outlined the truths about Israel’s death penalty bill in that essay, and we reiterate them here.

The death penalty will increase – not decrease – terrorist attacks in Israel, creating more murders and martyrs (shahids), and endangering Jews worldwide. It risks executing the innocent. Jewish tradition makes the death penalty virtually impossible to carry out. Like tasteless Purim masks, terms like “deterrence,” which is a fallacious delusion when applied to the death penalty,  and “retributive” or “proportional” justice are veils for vengeance, which does not bring closure for murder victims’ loved ones. The death penalty is racist. It often results inphysical torture, and always is psychological torture for individuals counting down to their execution day. There is no humane way to execute human beings against their will. The death penalty will traumatize the Israel Prison Service executioners. From Adolph Hitler to Donald Trump and now Ithamar Ben Gvir, the death penalty is used as a political tool, particularly for election campaigns. And, last but far from least, it violates the human right to life.

Instead of celebrating death, we ask readers to recall the words of Elie Wiesel, whose views encapsulate the stance of L’chaim’s members. When questioned about his feelings on capital punishment, Wiesel resolutely stated, “Death should never be the answer in a civilized society.” By the end of his life, Wiesel publicly said that he made no exception to this rule, stating: “With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory, I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”

Twenty-first-century Judaism must hold by the red line that Wiesel set forth. It cannot mirror Hamas, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and others by violating its moral obligations and ethical standards and engaging in state-sponsored killings of defenseless prisoners. With Wiesel’s neshama in mind and heart, and on behalf of all L’chaim members, we respectfully implore Israel to join civilized humanity and abolish the death penalty once and for all. The first steps toward doing so are the Israeli Supreme Court unconditionally repealing the abject abomination that is Israel’s new death penalty law, and the Knesset rejecting the second death penalty bill now before it.

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM, BCC

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

Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action