Remember the name Bezalel Smotrich. If a planned vote this week on the death penalty will separate the True Right from the hangers-on, his place is assured.

By Bradley Burston

Remember the name Bezalel Smotrich.

Yes, the same far-right activist who was once reportedly held by the Shin Bet on suspicion of endangering human life, malicious damage, membership in a banned organization and sedition.

The same Smotrich who once organized the "march of beasts," parading donkeys through Jerusalem streets to protest Gay Pride parades, and who, after disavowing the act, still described himself this year as a "proud homophobe."

He has been a member of Knesset for less than four months, but he's already made quite a name for himself. And not only because Smotrich, of the hard right Habayit Hayehudi party, a cornerstone partner of Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition, was selected to chair Knesset debates as a Deputy Speaker.

This week, he put himself forward as a candidate for another high-profile post: Executioner.

At present, Israel effectively has no death penalty. The sentence has been used only once, in 1962, when former Nazi SS extermination mastermind Adolf Eichmann was hanged.

But new legislation by a fellow first-term legislator, Sharon Gal of Avigdor Lieberman's hardline Yisrael Beiteinu faction, would institute the death penalty for terrorism.

Gal said a Knesset vote which he has demanded be held this week over the death penalty bill, would show the Israeli public exactly which supposedly rightist Israeli politicians are truly right-wing – those willing to vote for the death penalty - and which are Right In Name Only.

But Smotrich went him one better.

Appearing Sunday on the Knesset Channel, Smotrich was asked by anchor Orit Lavie-Nessiel, who would carry out such a measure.

Smotrich: "I'm ready to do it. I'm here and I'm telling you that I'm ready to do it. I'm prepared to make this real."

Lavie-Nessiel: "Do what? Carry out the death penalty?"

Smotrich: "Absolutely. Unequivocally. If that's -"

Lavie-Nessiel, taken aback: "Say that again, because I – I …"

Smotrich: "I'll say it again. I am willing to be the one who carries out that sentence. It will be difficult for me. It's not easy.

"But if this is the right decision, if this is what's right for the people of Israel and what's right for the state of Israel, and it passes all the judicial proceedings, I am certainly prepared to be the one - "

Lavie-Nessiel: "You're ready to be the hangman?"

Smotrich: "I am prepared to be the one who carries out this suitable and just sentence."

Netanyahu, faced with a reported threat of immediate resignation by his attorney general if the death penalty bill becomes law, sought Sunday to bury the initiative by consigning it to a committee for at least three months of study.

Undeterred, bill sponsor Gal is determined to bring the bill to the Knesset floor for debate and a preliminary vote later this week.

Gal has stepped up a controversial Facebook campaign in which scores of Israelis, some of them children and infants, were photographed holding up signs reading "I too am in favor of the death penalty for terrorists." Some of those who posted also said they'd volunteer to carry out the sentence.

While the prime minister and many senior security and diplomatic figures oppose the bill, a number of Netanyahu's Likud ministers are said to support it, among them Miri Regev, Ze'ev Elkin, Danny Danon and Ophir Akunis, as well as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of Habayit Hayehudi and her party chair Naftali Bennett.

Weinstein has been quoted as calling the death penalty "unwise, ineffective and immoral."

Gal, for his part, stresses that a Knesset vote would separate the True Right from the hangers-on.

"I am demanding a Knesset vote on Wednesday," Gal told Israel Channel Two television Sunday. "In a live broadcast, I imagine that a large portion of the public will come to see who is genuinely part of the Nationalist Camp, who is the True Right, who is unwilling to surrender to terror."

Gal said his Facebook campaign was bringing pressure to bear on lawmakers to support imposing the death penalty, which he said could win a majority in the preliminary vote.

When Channel Two anchor Nadav Bornshtein remarked that he and many others had been "shocked" by the use of children and infants in the Facebook campaign, Gal replied, "What's shocking you so much? When parents decide that they want to include the children and give them a sign to hold, that they're in favor of the death penalty for terrorists - terrorists who murdered children, infants, women, men - that's their right. I don't know why you [plural in the Hebrew] are so shocked. I'm not shocked."

Then why did you not photograph your own children with the signs, Gal was asked.

"My children were not photographed because I didn't decide to include them in this matter, because in my view they are children who go to school, and we have to take care of them," Gal said.

"Everyone makes his own calculation. I very much appreciate and admire the mobilization of the people of Israel," Gal concluded.

"This has to cause politicians to rethink things ahead of the vote on Wednesday, because the public is watching us."

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/.premium-1.665826

Facebook campaign for the death penalty.

Using children to advocate the death penalty is pretty offensive.

Ugh.

.....our Right wing are capable of anything so it came as no surprise.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/knesset-rejects-death-penalty-for-terrorists/[link:http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/knesset-rejects-death-penalty-for-terrorists/|

The bill had the support of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, Culture Minister Miri Regev, Science Minister Danny Danon, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Ze’ev Elkin and Minister Ofir Akunis.

...did you expect otherwise ??

lopsided.

Hamas has been accused of using the cover of last summer’s war in Gaza to carry out summary executions, including to “settle scores” against opponents under the pretext they were “collaborators with Israel”.

The claims that Hamas committed rights abuses amounting to war crimes are made in a damning report by Amnesty International highlighting abuses committed by Hamas during last summer’s 50-day war.

It includes accusations that Hamas carried out the summary execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others, including members and supporters of Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/27/hamas-executed-palestinians-under-cover-gaza-conflict-amnesty

....well done .

Overview

The right to life is the most basic and fundamental of all human rights. It is the foundation upon which all other rights are built upon. It is inalienable and yet, all too often, violated. When a State exercises judicial discretion to violate the right to life this process is known as the death penalty. Although the PNA is not a fully functioning state (owing to the ongoing belligerent Israeli occupation, now in its 39th year) it does maintain some of the trappings of statehood – one of which has been demonstrated by its limited use of lethal force.

On 12 June 2005, the PNA, following death penalty orders being signed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, executed four Palestinian prisoners who had been convicted of murder and other crimes between 1995 and 2000. These executions were the first since 2000 after former President Arafat had agreed to a moratorium on the death penalty. According to PCHR's documentation, the PNA has carried out nine death sentences since its establishment in 1994 and a further nine prisoners have been killed in other circumstances. Palestinian courts have handed down 73 death sentences since 1994

http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4007&Itemid=210

They create a mythical issue that does not really exist:

"The death penalty is making a comeback in Israel"

They expound on why that issue illustrates how terrible Israel is:

"will bring the mutual hatred and cruelty between Jews and Palestinians to another level"

Then don't report on the fact that issue was bogus to begin with:

"Israel Knesset Rejects Death Penalty by 94-6 Vote" (From The Forward, not 972mag)

Then drop the original mythical issue and make up a new one:

"Exclusive: The IDF is monitoring what Israeli citizens say on Facebook"

And on and on it goes.

Legislation...

Netanyahu buries death penalty bill despite likely majority in ministerial committee

Source: Jerusalem Post, July 12, 2015

Government to form committee to review the topic; Yisrael Beytenu MK says PM’s move shows he is not really right-wing.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday postponed by three months the vote on a Yisrael Beytenu bill making it easier to sentence terrorists to death, instead opting to form a committee on the topic.

The current law gives judges an option of sentencing a terrorist to death, but only if there is a consensus between all the judges presiding over the case.

The bill by MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) would allow a majority of judges presiding on a case to decide on the death penalty. The legislation would apply to Israel within the Green Line and to Judea and Samaria, and would not allow the IDF to change the sentence for West Bank residents.

As of Sunday morning, it seemed likely the Ministerial Committee for Legislation would approve the bill as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of Bayit Yehudi, as well as the Likud’s Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev, Science, Technology and Space Minister Danny Danon and Minister-Without- Portfolio in the Communications Ministry Ofir Akunis had all said publicly they supported capital punishment for terrorists, while Tourism Minister Yariv Levin was the only Likud minister who spoke out against it.

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-buries-death-penalty-bill-despite-likely-majority-in-ministerial-committee-408709


The death penalty bill didn't go any further only because Netanyahu slammed all the brakes on this bill. This wasn't a lunatic fringe attempting to stir things up, this was government business as usual - Israel style. I bet the Ministerial committee is planning a new death penalty bill right now, and that one might be approved in the future.

!!!!!.... ??????

Sure

And Bradley Burston ????

and Israel Channel Two television ????? :

and Facebook ????

and the Jewish Daily Forward ????

" And on and on " ....you go about 972 .

and who exactly is " it " ??????

in the comment to which i replied.