JERUSALEM — On Monday, Israel’s Parliament took a significant step by passing a controversial law that enforces the death penalty for Palestinians found guilty of murdering Israelis.
This legislative move marks the culmination of a persistent effort by Israel’s far-right factions to intensify penalties for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic crimes against Israeli citizens. Notably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally attended the session to cast his affirmative vote.
Under this law, the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings is death by hanging. Additionally, it grants Israeli courts the discretion to choose between the death penalty or life imprisonment for its citizens involved in similar crimes. It should be noted that this law is not retroactive and will only apply to future convictions.
The legislation has faced sharp criticism from both Israeli and Palestinian rights organizations, which denounce it as discriminatory, excessively harsh, and ineffective in preventing future attacks by Palestinian assailants.
The vote’s outcome was met with celebratory applause in the chamber. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s outspoken national security minister and a driving force behind the law, celebrated with a bottle in hand, while Netanyahu appeared unmoved by the spectacle.
Limor Son Har-Melech, a far-right legislator and one of the law’s initial proponents, was visibly emotional, shedding tears. Her personal history includes the tragic loss of her first husband to a Palestinian militant attack in the West Bank.
Within minutes, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said it had petitioned Israel’s highest court challenging the law, calling it “discriminatory by design” and “enacted without legal authority” over West Bank Palestinians.
The legislation calls for the death penalty to go into effect within 30 days.
Directly before voting began, Ben Gvir made a bellowing speech from the podium, describing 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 said.
On his lapel he wore the pin that has become his signature: a small metal noose.
What’s in the bill?
Critics include Israelis and Palestinians, international rights groups and the United Nations. They say that it establishes a hierarchy between Israeli court systems in a way that will confine the death penalty to Palestinians convicted of murdering Jewish citizens of Israel.
The bill instructs military courts to mete out the sentence to those convicted of murdering an Israeli “as an act of terror.” Such courts try only West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens. The bill says military courts can change the penalty to life imprisonment in “special circumstances.”
Israeli courts, which try Israeli citizens, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, can choose between life imprisonment or the death penalty in cases of murder aiming to harm Israeli citizens and residents or “with the intent of rejecting the existence of the state of Israel.”
Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, said this distinction is problematic.
“It will apply in territories with military courts, which are Palestinian courts. 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,” he said.
Critiques of the bill
Cohen added 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.
The lawyer for the parliament’s National Security Committee raised several concerns during earlier deliberations, noting that it does not allow clemency, contradicting international conventions. The bill says executions should be carried out within 90 days of sentencing.
Though Israel technically has the death penalty on the books as a possible punishment for acts of genocide, espionage during wartime and certain terror offenses, the country hasn’t put anyone to death since Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
The bill will not apply retroactively to any of the militants Israel currently holds who attacked the country on Oct. 7, 2023. There is a separate bill under consideration dealing with punishment for the attackers.
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.
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel, a local advocacy group, says the state has consistently voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty at the U.N. Israel’s Shin Bet’s security agency had — until recently — objected to the practice, believing it could spur further revenge plots by Palestinian militants.
