The death penalty only unlocks a Pandora’s Box of more terror and killing

In his June 11 op-ed for the Jerusalem Report, ex-Shin Bet official Moshe Fuzaylov claims that “(t)he death penalty isn’t revenge, it’s how terror loses its key.” Mr. Fuzaylov concludes that executions form part of “a vital pincer movement designed to permanently extinguish the operational motivation of Palestinian terrorist organizations.” The thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” across Israel and the world, including this author, respectfully disagree. As we have written elsewhere in these pages, the death penalty inherently constitutes a particularly insidious form of vengeance, no matter how well it is cloaked in false, disproven notions of “deterrence,” or as Mr. Fuzaylov has framed it, “strategy.” A renowned comment regarding the well-established relationship between the death penalty and a desire for martyrdom comes from 19th-century writer Eliphas Levi. Levi demonstrated a keen understanding of the dynamics at play when he wrote: “Every head that falls upon the scaffold may be honored and praised as the head of a martyr.” If only Mr. Fuzalov grasped this harsh reality of unchecked, base human nature.

As a resident of Canada, this author needs look no further than these shores to see just how wrong this conclusion is: the death penalty does not remove terror’s key, but instead opens the door to further reprisals. Here in Montreal, the hanging effigies of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Donald Trump on display at a recent pro-Palestinian rally serve as the latest nauseating reminder that calling for executions only feeds the cycle of violence. As with Hamas’ recent threatening response to Israel’s new capital punishment laws, it also unmistakably fuels antisemitic fervor. L’chaim members have been keenly aware of this reality in advocating for years to end capital punishment in the United States, Israel, Iran, and globally, without exception.

To be abundantly clear: there is no excuse for anyone to regurgitate the antisemitic filth that this recent Canadian display demonstrates. Yet there can also be no doubt that, contrary to Mr. Fuzaylov’s assertions, Israel’s passage of two laws calling for the death penalty for terrorists only ripens the environment for this insidious form of hate to take root and fester. The fact that the executed effigies of Ben Gvir and Netanyahu feature the same noose lapel pin that Ben Gvir has worn for months as he championed these death penalty laws through the Knesset underscores this point.

The lesson is simple: calls for death fuel more killing. Once any society exposes itself to the Pandora’s Box of state-sponsored killings of prisoners, all bets on civilized humanity are off. The eponymous Greek myth of Pandora originates from the 8th-century poet Hesiod’s “Theogony” and “Works and Days.” In this infamous narrative, Pandora opens a jar (later mistranslated as a box) containing all the evils and sorrows of the world, releasing them all with disastrous consequences, including disease, old age and death. The myth serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of curiosity and disobedience, and it symbolizes the introduction of suffering and misfortune into the world.

If a society wantonly elects to violate the most fundamental human right of life by allowing its government to kill its fellow incarcerated human beings in cold blood, then all bets are rendered off regarding the value of life itself. Any pro-death culture that unveils this Pandora’s Box unleashes the manmade Angel of Death, who responds in kind with a spate of wanton killings that can only be checked when he is forever banned without exception. By keeping this door ajar, Israel places itself in the company of such modern bastions of state-sponsored murder as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Singapore and Indonesia.

That is indeed the only veritable “box” that Mr. Fuzaylov’s so-called “key” unlocks: Ben Gvir’s pre-Passover celebration of death, Hamas’ reciprocal call for violence against IDF soldiers, and now this danse macabre in Montreal. It is for this reason that Elie Wiesel prophetically stated that when it comes to capital punishment: “Death should never be the answer in a civilized society.”

The shameful Montreal public effigy hanging is reminiscent of yet another fact that squarely disproves Mr. Fuzaylov’s theory that executions will remove the “key” to terror. In actuality, Hamas leadership has responded to Israel’s two death penalty laws with a renewed call for the kidnapping of IDF soldiers. Tragically, and as expected, that development, like the effigies, confirms the worst fears that opponents of Israel’s renewed execution push have articulated time and again. It is horrendous proof positive that these laws jeopardize the safety and security of Jews across the globe.

Despite the clear-cut evidence that judicial state killings would only encourage reprisal, many proponents of Israel’s execution laws have since doubled down on their pro-death stance. Various advocates of execution have responded to Hamas’ threats by stating that Israel should hang all imprisoned terrorists. In doing so, they fail to consider how such actions would further perpetuate the cycle of violence. A closer examination of Hamas’ recent threats demonstrates this fact.

In the document that Hamas released, its leadership stated clearly that it is planning to intensify efforts to kidnap Israeli soldiers. The terrorist group framed these proposed kidnappings as the only effective means of securing the release of Palestinian prisoners facing state violence, according to an internal message published Monday by Israeli Public Broadcaster KAN News. The letter, circulated internally among Hamas operatives in Gaza, came after the Knesset passed the second of two laws that would impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists.

Hamas described the most recent of these death penalty laws as a “fascist law,” and urged members of the organization’s military wing to escalate and carry out “active operations.” The internal communique reportedly emphasized what Hamas described as the strategic importance of abducting Israeli soldiers, calling it “the only path” to securing the release of Palestinian prisoners facing violence by Israel. Crucially, Hamas further warned that the execution of Palestinian prisoners could trigger broader escalation with soldiers in the Gaza envelope. This threat is presented as concrete evidence that the laws may provoke further violence. “Any harm to the life of a prisoner is an explosive that will lead to the eruption of a volcano,” the letter read.

These developments underscore how the upcoming debate in the Israeli Supreme Court about the legality of the “Death Penalty for Terrorists” Law (the first of Israel’s two new execution-related laws) is among the most consequential to come before that esteemed judicial body in the twenty-first century. Its outcome affects not only the State of Israel but Jews everywhere. If the Supreme Court fails to repeal the law—if the unconscionable stain of executions darkens the moral fabric of Israeli society—antisemitic extremists will blame all Jews for their state-sponsored murder program, fitting it into their warped view of Israel—and, by extension, Judaism—as a so-called “Death Cult.” For such extremists, that may be all it takes to replace hanging effigies with hanging human beings.

If repeal at the Supreme Court level succeeds, however, then it might set a precedent for the eventual repeal of the second death penalty law that Israel subsequently passed, specifically targeting convicted terrorists who carried out the reprehensible Oct. 7, 2023, massacres across Israel. For this reason alone, amidst many others, Israeli Supreme Court justices must redeem Israel by casting a resounding “No!” in response to the first of these death penalty laws now before them. They should unconditionally repeal this law, encouraging Israel to return to the civilized, abolitionist path for which Wiesel called. Only then can Israel begin to halt the seemingly endless cycle of violence and killing, once and for all. The thousands of members of L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty from across Israel and the world truly hope that Mr. Fuzaylov will come to appreciate this demonstrable reality before it is too late.

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM, BCC

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

Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action