Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ignited fierce international condemnation after sharing a provocative TikTok video that leverages a popular viral trend to glorify the recent Knesset approval of capital punishment for Palestinian prisoners.
The clip, posted on May 4, adapts the viral “I know I should sleep, but the voices in my head go…” audio trend to feature a montage of AI-generated images of everyday objects shaped into gallows and execution nooses. In the caption of the post, written in Hebrew, Ben-Gvir wrote: “I dream of the death penalty for terrorists. What do you dream of?” The caption was paired with relevant hashtags and the trend’s official audio track.
This public glorification of execution is far from an isolated incident for the ultranationalist minister. Ben-Gvir has spent years aggressively campaigning to expand the death penalty to Palestinian detainees, a policy that secured final approval from Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in a 62-48 vote across second and third readings on March 30. Just days before the TikTok post, Ben-Gvir faced widespread criticism for celebrating his 50th birthday with a multi-tiered birthday cake topped with a golden noose, emblazoned with the message “Congratulations Minister Ben-Gvir, sometimes dreams come true.” A smaller cake from his wife Ayala bore the same slogan, with photos from the event showing Ben-Gvir smiling alongside the controversial dessert.
Within hours of the TikTok going live, it drew intense backlash across global social media platforms, with users across X, Instagram and other platforms decrying the minister’s rhetoric as dangerous and dehumanizing. Many commentators labeled the video “sickening,” “morally rotten” and “sadistic,” warning it exposes the eliminationist core of the current Israeli government’s ideology toward Palestinians.
One post on X argued that the minister’s fixation on executing Palestinian detainees lays bare the “genocidal mindset of the Israeli occupation,” adding that Ben-Gvir is not a fringe outlier, but a representative of the current ruling majority — a reality that, the commenter noted, is already proven by the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Another Instagram user called the clip “unashamed evil,” while commentators have questioned the minister’s psychological state, with one comment bluntly labeling him a psychopath, and another comparing his ideology to Nazism.
Other critics framed the video against the backdrop of ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza and attempts by humanitarian aid flotillas to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave. One commentator flipped Ben-Gvir’s framing, arguing that the only criminals in the current context are not the starving Palestinian people, but the activists who bring food and aid to starving Gaza children, as labeled by Israeli officials.
Many social media users even raised the prospect of future international accountability for Ben-Gvir, with one comment noting: “When eventually Ben-Gvir is caught up on his war crimes and tried, don’t nobody tell me he shouldn’t get the noose.”
Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Knesset, also condemned the sequence of events, saying both Ben-Gvir and his wife “need a psychiatrist immediately.” Tibi pointed out that ordinary people celebrate birthdays with wishes for peace and prosperity, but Ben-Gvir’s circle instead “sanctify hatred and death.”
Human rights organizations have already labeled the newly passed death penalty law discriminatory and racist, warning that Ben-Gvir’s “dream” of widespread executions would formalize state-sanctioned killing of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom are already held in Israeli detention facilities under documented conditions of torture, inadequate medical care and severe food deprivation. According to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights advocacy group, more than 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli custody as of 2024.