What’s the difference between Auschwitz-Birkenau complex and the Israeli Zionist gallows? Auschwitz-Birkenau did not come with a special “viewing chamber.”

That is not a metaphor. It is what Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced on camera on 19th August. He waved his hand and heralded to his Instagram followers the gallows Israel plans to use to execute Palestinian prisoners. Like a serial killer, a diabolical smirk on his face, he gloated as he described his 21st-century damnatio ad bestias. 

Israeli culture didn’t need a climate-controlled stage to derive pleasure from watching Palestinian pain. For years, they did it at “Sderot Cinema.” Residents of Jewish-only colonies along the Gaza boundary have hauled lawn chairs and snacks and huddled on the hilltops to watch the bombing of Gaza the way Americans watch Fourth of July fireworks.

Israeli culture didn’t need a climate-controlled stage to derive pleasure from watching Palestinian pain. For years, they did it at “Sderot Cinema.” Residents of Jewish-only colonies along the Gaza boundary have hauled lawn chairs and snacks and huddled on the hilltops to watch the bombing of Gaza the way Americans watch Fourth of July fireworks.

They watched the bombs with awe and excitement, cheering the massive explosions that lit up Gaza’s night sky and applauding each plume of smoke rising from smoldering neighborhoods with unadulterated cruelty.

This was not only since 7th October 2023, but back to 2014 where murder and destruction was videoed and normalised as a form of public entertainment. The open-air cinema that once required a folding chair on a hill now gets an enclosed theatre, offering the Israeli audience more comfortable seating to maximize its pleasure. Designed by a minister who celebrated his 50th birthday with a noose decorated cake and a message,........

© Middle East Monitor