Israel’s parliament introduced two controversial bills on Monday. These include bills that would expand the use of the death penalty for convicted “terrorists” and individuals convicted of nationalistically motivated murders.
The death penalty bill, backed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, passed its first reading by a margin of 39 votes to 16. It now goes to a parliamentary committee for further discussion and preparation ahead of second and third readings.
Ben Gvir claimed the bill would “create a real deterrent” against terrorism and threatened to withdraw his party from Israel’s coalition government if the bill was not voted on.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously opposed the bill, citing concerns about possible retaliation against Israeli hostages held in Gaza. However, following the implementation of a fragile ceasefire, he changed his position.
Israel currently only allows the death penalty in exceptional cases, such as treason and war crimes committed under the Nazi regime, but it has not been used for decades.
The only person ever executed in Israel was Adolf Eichmann, the main architect of the Holocaust, who was famously captured by Israeli agents in Argentina, then convicted in a landmark trial, and hanged in 1962.
Before Monday’s vote, Ben Gvir declared in X: “History will judge anyone who dares to oppose the terrorist death penalty law today.”
The bill would also amend the military courts law governing the occupied West Bank, allowing courts there to impose the death penalty by a simple majority vote of a panel of judges, rather than unanimously. It also eliminates the option of granting extenuating circumstances in sentencing. Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military law, while Israeli settlers are subject to Israeli civil law.
The UN has previously condemned Israeli military tribunals in the occupied West Bank, saying they have “decades of violations of the Palestinian people’s right to due process guarantees” and decried the “lack of fair trials in the occupied West Bank.”
“In the occupied West Bank, the functions of police, investigators, prosecutors and judges are vested in the same hierarchy: the Israeli military,” UN experts said last year.
In the same session, lawmakers also approved first reading of another bill that would allow the Israeli government to shut down foreign media without a court order.
The proposal aims to formalize what is known as the “Al Jazeera Law”, following the closure of the Qatari network’s operations in Israel by the Ministry of Communications in 2024. The ministry accused Al Jazeera of having anti-Israel bias and supporting Hamas through its coverage of the Gaza war.
Al Jazeera has repeatedly denied these accusations and condemned the closure in Israel. Several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza have also been killed by Israeli forces in the past two years.
A new foreign media law introduced by Likud lawmaker Ariel Karner and backed by Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition would make these powers permanent outside of wartime or national emergencies and remove the requirement for judicial oversight.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the proposal, calling it “the first nail in the coffin of the editorial independence of broadcast media in Israel.”
“Against the backdrop of the war and the upcoming election campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is trying to silence voices critical of the far-right coalition in power,” said RSF Editor-in-Chief Anne Bokande. “These legislative attacks will have a lasting negative impact on Israel’s media environment,” she warned.
