Schadenfreude: From hidden gas chambers to Israel’s viewing gallows

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Ben-Gvir-at-a-building-site-for-gallows-where-Palestinian-convicts-will-be-executed.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" width="1200" />

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 […]