Israel’s Parliament passes death penalty bill targeting Palestinians

Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure that has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane.

The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a yearslong drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offences against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person. The law makes the death penalty - by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges — language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

It will not apply retroactively to any prisoners Israel currently holds, including the Hamas-led militants who attacked the country on October 7, 2023, triggering the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

After the final 62-48 vote in favour, lawmakers erupted into cheers and stood up in jubilation. Netanyahu, who remained in his seat, did not immediately react or speak.

Israel’s firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who spearheaded the push for the legislation, brandished a bottle in celebration. Far-right lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, one of the bill’s original sponsors whose first husband was killed in a Palestinian militant attack in the West Bank, smiled through tears.

The law will face legal challenges: The legislation, which says it will take effect in 30 days, is certain to face legal challenges that may stall its implementation.

Minutes after the bill passed, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it had already petitioned Israel’s highest court to challenge the law. It called the legislation “discriminatory by design” and said the parliament had enacted it “without legal authority” over West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens. 

Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Centre for Democratic Values and Institutions, said that under international law, Israel’s parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory.

Many in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition seek to annex the West Bank to Israel.

 Concerns raised in the Knesset: The vote capped a daylong debate in the parliament. During earlier deliberations, lawmakers raised other concerns, including how the bill does not allow clemency, contradicting international conventions. Opposition lawmakers at times appeared to plead with their colleagues to vote against the bill.

Before the vote, Ben Gvir described 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 takes a life, the State of Israel will take their life,” he told lawmakers. On his lapel, he wore a signature pin - a small metal noose.

Gilad Kariv, of the Labour Party, condemned the bill’s stipulation that a unanimous judgment is not required to impose the death sentence.

“A law in which a person can be sentenced to death without a unanimous conviction. Is this justice in your eyes? Is this the sanctity of life that Israeli tradition has taught us?” he asked.

The bill contravenes international law, he added, and risks turning Israeli soldiers and prison guards into “war criminals against their will.”

Some, like Aida Sliman of Hadash, the leftist Jewish-Arab political party, left the chamber in dismay before the votes were complete.

What does the bill say?: Experts say the legislation has two key elements that will effectively limit the death penalty to Palestinians.

First, the bill makes the death penalty a default punishment for nationalistic killings in military courts, which try only West Bank Palestinians and not Israeli citizens. It says that only in special circumstances can military judges change the sentence to life imprisonment.

It gives Israeli civilian courts a greater degree of leniency in sentencing, with judges having the option to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment.

The second element is how the bill defines the offence punishable by death: killing that rejects the existence of the state of Israel.

“It will apply in Israeli courts, but only to terrorist activities that are motivated by the wish to undermine the existence of Israel. That means Jews will not be indicted under this law,” Cohen said.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy released a statement Sunday urging Israel to abandon plans to pass the law, calling it “de facto discriminatory,” and saying the death penalty was unethical and had no “deterring effect.”

The bill breaks with Israeli history: Though Israel technically has the death penalty on the books as a possible punishment for acts of genocide, espionage during wartime and certain terror offences, the country hasn’t put anyone to death since Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

The Public Committee against Torture in Israel says the state has consistently voted in favour of abolishing the death penalty at the UN. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency had — until recently — objected to the practice, believing it could spur further revenge plots by Palestinian militants.

Some opposition lawmakers worry that the bill could harm future hostage negotiations. Israel exchanged some 250 hostages taken during the October 2023 attack for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

There is a separate bill under consideration dealing with punishment for the October 7, 2023, attackers in Israel’s custody.