Israel approves death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis – National
Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law authorizing the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis, a move harshly criticized by the international community and human rights groups as racist and inhumane.
The bill’s passage marked the culmination of years of lobbying by the food rights movement to increase punishment for Palestinians convicted of crimes against Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person.
The law makes the death penalty – by hanging – the standard punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of genocide. It also gives Israeli courts the option to impose the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted of the same crimes — language that legal experts say limits those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens in Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.
It will also not apply to any prisoners Israel currently holds, including the Hamas-led militants who invaded the country in Oct. 7, 2023, the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip began.
After a final vote of 62-48 in favor, lawmakers rose to their feet and cheered. Netanyahu, who remained in his seat, did not immediately react or speak.
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. Right-wing lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, one of the original sponsors of the bill whose first husband was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack in the West Bank, smiled through tears.
The law will face legal challenges
This law, which says it will come into effect in 30 days, will face legal challenges that may stop its implementation.
A few minutes after the bill was passed, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it had already filed a petition with Israel’s highest court to challenge the law. It called the law “discriminatory by design” and said parliament passed it “without legal authority” against West Bank Palestinians, who are not citizens of Israel.
Amichai Cohen, executive director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, said that under international law, the Israeli parliament should not pass laws in the West Bank, which is not Israeli territory.
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Many in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition want to annex the West Bank to Israel.
Concerns expressed in the Knesset
The vote ended a day-long debate in parliament. In earlier debates, lawmakers raised other concerns, including how the bill does not allow for leniency, which is against international treaties. Opposition lawyers were sometimes seen urging their colleagues to vote for the bill.
Before the vote, Ben Gvir described the law as long overdue and a symbol of strength and national pride.
“From today, all terrorists will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever kills himself, the State of Israel will take his life,” he told the law enforcement. On his bench, he had installed a pin – a small metal thread.
Gilad Kariv, of the Labor Party, criticized the bill’s premise that a unanimous verdict is not required to impose the death penalty.
“The law where a person cannot be sentenced to death without being sentenced unanimously. Is this justice in your eyes? Is this the sanctity of life that the Israeli culture has taught us?” he asked.
The bill violates international law, he added, and risks turning Israeli soldiers and prison guards into “war criminals against their will.”
Others, like Aida Sliman of Hadash, a leftist Jewish-Arab political party, left the room in shock before the votes were finished.
Experts say the law has two key features that will effectively reduce the death penalty for Palestinians.
First, the bill makes the death penalty the default penalty for killings in military courts, which only try Palestinians in the West Bank and not Israeli citizens. It says that only in special circumstances can military judges commute the sentence to life imprisonment.
It gives Israeli civilian courts a greater degree of discretion in sentencing, with judges having the option to choose between the death penalty and life in prison.
The second aspect is how the bill defines a crime punishable by death: murder that denies the existence of the state of Israel.
“It will apply in Israeli courts, but only in cases of terrorism motivated by the desire to undermine the existence of Israel. That means Jews will not be charged under this law,” said Cohen.
The foreign ministers of Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a statement on Sunday urging Israel to abandon plans to pass the law, calling it “truly discriminatory,” and saying the death penalty is illegal and has no “negative impact.”
Bill breaks away from Israel’s history
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 Public Committee Against Torture in Israel says the state has consistently voted to abolish the death penalty in the UN Israel’s Shin Bet security agency – until recently – and opposes the practice, believing it could further the revenge plans of Palestinian militants.
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.
There is a separate bill under consideration regarding the punishment of the Oct. 7 attackers. 2023 imprisoned by Israel.
