Lawmakers from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party wore noose-shaped lapel pins during a Monday committee meeting on a controversial bill they are pushing to legislate the death penalty for terror convicts, drawing condemnation from opposition figures.

The golden-colored pins were reminiscent of the yellow ribbons worn by most Israeli politicians and officials outside the far-right to show solidarity with hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The nooses were meant to symbolize the lawmakers’ “commitment to the demand for the death penalty for terrorists” and send “a clear message that terrorists are deserving of death,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s office said in a statement.

Ben Gvir heads the Otzma Yehudit, which is attempting to pass a bill allowing those convicted in deadly terror attacks to be put to death. Currently, capital punishment is reserved for extremely rare cases and has only been used a single time in the country’s history, the 1962 hanging of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust.

The pins were seen on Ben Gvir and four party MKs who attended a meeting of the National Security Committee to deliberate on the legislation, which passed its first reading in November, despite widespread opposition from rights groups and others.

During the hearing, Ben Gvir said that the noose is just “one of the options through which we will implement the death penalty law for terrorists.”

“Of course, there is the option of the gallows, the electric chair and also the option of euthanasia,” he said.

He insisted that despite the Israeli Medical Association’s stance against the bill, he has........

© The Times of Israel