Ben Gvir’s Crocodile Prisons: A Brutal Proposal

By Staff, Agencies

"Israel's" far-right Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is advancing a grotesque and openly cruel vision for incarceration: A prison encircled by live crocodiles, designed to terrorize detainees and deter escape attempts.

The proposal reflects the increasingly brutal direction of "Israeli" prison practices, particularly against Palestinian detainees.

According to "Israeli" channel i24, a delegation from the "Israeli" Prison Service, led by the deputy commissioner, conducted a field visit on Thursday to a crocodile farm in the "Hammat Gader" area. They claimed the tour was "educational rather than recreational, aimed at learning how crocodiles are handled in preparation for the proposed prison project."

The prison, as envisioned by Ben Gvir, would be deliberately surrounded by crocodiles, further entrenching "Israel's" notorious prison system as a tool of psychological and physical abuse against Palestinians.

The report noted that the idea was inspired by a model attributed to US President Donald Trump, involving a prison built within Florida’s Everglades, an area populated by crocodiles. In that setting, the natural environment was framed as a deterrent to escape, eliminating the need for traditional walls.

The notion of a prison surrounded by crocodiles was reportedly raised during an earlier meeting between Ben Gvir and Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, following claims of increased escape attempts by detainees. The recent visit to the crocodile farm marks an initial test phase in studying the feasibility of using crocodiles as a security mechanism.

This latest development comes amid a wider campaign of escalating brutality against Palestinian detainees. Most notably, the general assembly of the Knesset recently approved, in a first reading, a draft law allowing the execution of Palestinian detainees.

The bill, submitted by Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party, passed with 36 votes in favor and 15 against, and has been referred to a parliamentary committee ahead of its second and third readings. During the session, Ben Gvir appeared wearing a lapel pin shaped like a noose to support a proposed bill enforcing the death penalty on Palestinians accused of attacks against settlers.

The push to surround detainees with crocodiles, alongside efforts to reintroduce the death penalty, signals a dangerous shift toward spectacle-driven punishment and collective dehumanization. Such measures deepen violations against Palestinian detainees and further erode any remaining pretense of adherence to international legal and humanitarian standards.