Tel Aviv, Israel —
Israel’s parliament on Monday finalized a controversial bill that would effectively expand the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terrorism and nationalist murders. The bill has been a core issue for the country’s far right for more than a decade.
The bill stipulates that West Bank residents who kill Israelis “with the intention of denying the existence of the State of Israel” will be sentenced to death. It would give courts the power to impose life imprisonment instead of the death penalty based on “special reasons or circumstances.” The bill requires Israeli prisons to carry out hangings without the right to appeal within 90 days of sentencing.
The bill effectively makes the death penalty a punishment only for Palestinians convicted of nationalist crimes, and excludes nationalistic murders committed by Jewish Israelis against Palestinians, prompting a backlash from human rights groups.
Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military law, while Israeli settlers are subject to Israeli civil law. The bill would amend the rules of military courts in the occupied West Bank, allowing judges to impose the death penalty without requiring a unanimous decision. The law does not apply to Hamas militants who took part in the October 7, 2023 massacre, as the government is pushing for a separate bill to create a dedicated tribunal.
Condemnation and legal challenge
A coalition of Israeli human rights and civil society organizations denounced the bill as “an official seal of approval for a policy of revenge and racist violence against Palestinians.” The law is particularly egregious because it “targets Palestinians while exempting Israelis,” the coalition said.
The Palestinian Prisoners of War Association condemned the bill in a statement, saying it represents a “historic escalation, a new phase in openly sanctioned politically motivated executions of Palestinian prisoners of war.”
The bill has already faced legal challenges, and shortly after the vote, the Israel Civil Rights Association petitioned the High Court to dismiss it. Opposition members and critics believe the bill is likely to be struck down as unconstitutional by Israel’s Supreme Court.
The bill, supported by far-right Minister of State Security Itamar Ben Gvir, passed the second and third readings by a margin of 62 votes to 48, with one abstention.
Ben Gvir, who brought a bottle of champagne into the Israeli parliament to celebrate, had previously threatened to quit his party from Israel’s coalition government if the bill was not voted on.
“Israel is changing the rules of the game today. Those who murder Jews cannot continue to breathe and enjoy prison conditions,” Ben Gvir said upon approving the bill.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously opposed the bill, citing concerns about possible retaliation against Israeli hostages held in Gaza. However, after the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire, they reversed their stance and allowed the bill to move forward, supporting it in the final vote.
Israel currently only allows the death penalty in exceptional cases, such as treason and war crimes committed under the Nazi regime, but has not carried out any executions in decades. Since the founding of Israel, only two people have been executed in Israel. One was an Israeli military officer executed for treason in 1948, and the other was Adolf Eichmann, a key architect of the Holocaust, who was famously captured by Israeli agents in Argentina, later convicted in a landmark trial in Israel, and hanged in 1962.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced the bill in parliament, calling it “a capitulation to Hamas.” He added: “We are not like Hamas. We are the exact opposite of Hamas. We did not establish a Jewish state to adopt the moral standards of Islamic extremists. This law says: If they come to kill us, the only solution is to be like the murderers: act like them, think like them, be them.”
Ahead of the vote, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom urged Israeli lawmakers to abandon the bill, expressing “deep concern” over its allegedly discriminatory nature. “Adoption of this bill risks undermining Israel’s commitment to democratic principles,” the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The United Nations has previously condemned Israeli military tribunals in the West Bank, saying that “Palestinians’ right to due process guarantees has been violated for decades.” The United Nations condemned the “lack of fair trial in the occupied West Bank.”
