N12 News
A parliamentary committee hearing in Israel descended into chaos Monday as far-right lawmakers screamed at the families of people taken hostage by Hamas.
The concerned relatives appeared at a Knesset National Security Committee session asking politicians not to advance legislation that would allow terrorists to be sentenced to death. The families argued that such a move could put their loved ones in even more danger while still in Hamas captivity in Gaza—but some legislators refused to listen.
Lawmakers from the extremist Otzma Yehudit party, which is pushing for the new capital punishment legislation, ignored the families’ fears at the hearing, according to The Jerusalem Post. A man whose wife and daughter are being held in Gaza begged for the lawmakers to stop “talking about killing Arabs and start speaking about saving Jews,” The Times of Israel reports.