art > PROTEST MESSAGES

THE GOLDEN NOOSE
ON YOUR LAPEL
WILL BE AROUND
YOUR NECK IN HELL

THE LYNCH MOB OF USRAEL

Seen in the American South, Israel’s New Lynching Law Is its Most Heinous Yet.

By Alex Skopic

Excerpt

"The Israeli Knesset passed a new law this week, championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, that mandates the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murder—but not Israelis. The law is specifically crafted to discriminate along ethnic lines. On paper, it punishes “terrorists who have carried out murderous terror attacks,” but the wording is carefully chosen so that it only applies to crimes committed “with the aim of negating the existence of the State of Israel.” This means that Israelis who kill Palestinians, with the intent to promote or defend Israel, are excluded by definition. As the New York Times delicately puts it, the law “almost certainly cannot be applied to Jewish extremists convicted of similar crimes.”

"Execution by hanging is the default punishment, and the new law requires it to be carried out within 90 days of sentencing. There is no possibility of clemency, but thanks to a last-minute change by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the sentence can be changed to life imprisonment if there are undefined “special circumstances”—a provision added in the eleventh hour, Reuters reports, “to head off international backlash.” In the lead-up to its passage, Ben-Gvir and his allies promoted the bill by wearing gold pins shaped like nooses on their lapels. When it became law, they popped champagne corks and raised a toast."