Image source, Reuters
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- Author, Sebastian Usher
- Author’s title, BBC Middle East Analyst
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Reading time: 4 min
The Israeli Parliament passed a law that would establish the death penalty as the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly “terrorist” attacks.
Critics have called the new law discriminatory and several European countries warn that it risks undermining “democratic principles.”
This Monday, the new law passed its third and final reading in the Knesset (Israel’s unicameral parliament) by 62 votes in favor and 48 against. It had the vote in favor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The bill stipulates that Palestinians convicted by Israeli military courts of carrying out deadly attacks considered “acts of terrorism” would be executed by hanging within 90 days, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.
In theory, Jewish Israelis could also be executed under this law, but in practice this would almost certainly not happen, as the death penalty could only be applied when the intent of the attack is to “deny the existence of the State of Israel.”
The legislation was strongly promoted by the far right, with the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as the main speaker. After the vote, he published on X: “We have made history! We promised it. We have fulfilled it.”
Limor Son-Har-Melech, a member of Ben-Gvir’s party who survived an attack by Palestinian gunmen that left her husband dead, argued that the law was necessary, citing the example of how one of her husband’s killers was later released and participated in the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
“For years, we have endured a cruel cycle of terror, imprisonment, release through reckless deals and the return of these human monsters to murder Jews again,” he said during the debate in Parliament.
“An unnecessary measure”
Image source, Getty Images
Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democratic party, criticized the new law and said it would lead to international sanctions.
“The death penalty law for terrorists is an unnecessary legislative measure designed to get Ben-Gvir more votes,” he said. “It does not contribute at all to Israel’s security.”
On the eve of the vote, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern,” arguing that the bill risked “undermining Israel’s commitments to democratic principles.”
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, condemned the passage of the law, stating that it “aims to legitimize extrajudicial executions under legislative protection.”
For its part, Hamas, which controls Gaza, declared in a statement issued Monday night that the passage of the bill “threatens the lives” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and called on the international community to “guarantee the protection of our prisoners.”
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has already filed an appeal against the law before the country’s Supreme Court.
“The law is unconstitutional, discriminatory by its very nature and – for Palestinians in the West Bank – enacted without legal authority,” he said in a statement.
The Supreme Court must now decide whether to admit the appeal against the bill.
Israel has only executed two people in its entire history: one of them was the infamous Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in perpetrating the Holocaust.
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