Israeli minister fined over video showing him threatening Palestinian inmate

Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, has been fined by the country's elections commission for a video he posted on social media, threatening to kill a Palestinian prisoner. The footage, which features convicted Hamas official Hassan Salameh, was posted last month on X but has since been deleted. Despite this, the video is still accessible online.

The Central Elections Committee fined Ben Gvir 10,000 shekels (around US$3,250) each to two rights groups that had lodged a complaint against the footage. The committee deemed the video to be electoral propaganda and said that public funds were used in its creation.

Ben Gvir, who is hopeful to become the next defence minister, has a history of posting videos showing him confronting inmates in Israeli prisons. The latest video, however, specifically targets Salameh, a Palestinian prisoner sentenced to multiple life terms for deadly attacks in 1996. In the video, Ben Gvir threatens to "put to death" Salameh, arguing that he has already turned Salameh's life into a living hell.

Rights groups, including the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, have welcomed the fine, expressing hope that it will discourage the minister from using prisons as a platform for election propaganda.