The Israeli parliament approves the death penalty for those found guilty of killing Israelis
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Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law authorizing the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.
The passage of the bill marks the culmination of a years-long push by Israel to increase the punishment for Palestinians convicted of crimes against Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the chamber to vote yes in person.
The law makes the death penalty – by hanging – the standard punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of genocide. The law also gives Israeli courts the authority to impose the death penalty or imprisonment on its citizens. It is not retroactive and will only apply in future cases.
The move has been harshly condemned by Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, who say it is racist, cruel and unlikely to deter Palestinian attackers.
When the measure was passed, the room erupted. The minister of national security in Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who led the campaign for the implementation of this law, revealed a bottle in celebration. Netanyahu remained motionless.
Right-wing lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, one of the original sponsors of the bill, wiped tears from his eyes. Har-Melech’s first husband was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack in the West Bank.
Within minutes, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it has filed a petition in Israel’s highest court against the law, calling it “discrimination by design” and “acted without legal authority” against the people of West Bank Palestine.
The law requires the death penalty to take effect within 30 days.
Just before voting began, Ben-Gvir made a rousing speech from the podium, describing the law as long overdue and a sign of strength and national pride.
“From today, every terrorist will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever kills himself, the State of Israel will take his life,” he said.
On his page he had put a pin that has become his signature: a small metal thread.
What’s in the bill?
Critics include Israelis and Palestinians, human rights groups and the United Nations. They say it creates a category within the Israeli court system that will ban the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Jewish citizens of Israel.
The bill orders military courts to sentence those convicted of killing an Israeli as an “act of terror.” Such courts only try West Bank Palestinians, who are not citizens of Israel. The bill says military courts can commute the sentence to life imprisonment in “special circumstances.”
Israeli courts, which try Israeli citizens, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, can choose between life imprisonment or the death penalty for murders intended to harm Israeli citizens and civilians or “with the intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel.”
Amichai Cohen, director of the Israel Democracy Institute for Democratic Values and Institutions, said the difference is problematic.
“It will work in areas with military courts, which are Palestinian courts. It will work in Israeli courts, but only in terrorist incidents motivated by the desire to undermine the existence of Israel. That means that Jews will not be charged under this law,” he said.
Appeals of the bill
Cohen added that under international law, Israel’s parliament cannot legislate in the West Bank, which is not Israeli territory. Many in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition want to annex the West Bank to Israel.
A representative of the National Security Committee of the parliament expressed many complaints during previous discussions, saying that it does not allow mercy, which is against international conventions. The bill states that executions must be carried out within 90 days of conviction.
Although Israel technically has the death penalty on the books as a possible punishment for acts of genocide, wartime espionage and some terrorism offences, the country has not executed anyone since Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
The bill will not continue to apply to any terrorist attacks that Israel has currently carried out in the country on Oct. 7, 2023. There is a separate bill under consideration regarding the punishment of attackers.
Some opposition lawyers are concerned that the bill could harm future hostage negotiations. Israel exchanged another 250 hostages taken during the October 2023 offensive for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, a local advocacy group, says the state has consistently voted to abolish the death penalty at the UN Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, until recently, and opposes the practice, believing it could further the Palestinian military’s revenge plans.
