Israel parliament approves death penalty for Palestinian attackers.
A deeply controversial law sparks outrage at home and abroad as human rights groups rush to court
Israel – Palestine – (Web Desk) – Israel’s parliament voted on Monday to pass a new law allowing the execution of Palestinians convicted of carrying out deadly terror attacks. The bill passed with 62 votes in favour and 48 against, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among those who supported it. One lawmaker abstained, and several others were simply absent from the vote.
The bill was strongly pushed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who had been wearing a noose-shaped pin on his jacket leading up to the vote — a clear symbol of his enthusiasm for the legislation. After the vote, he celebrated on X, writing, “We made history!!! We promised. We delivered.”
Under the new law, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who are found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks — classified as acts of terrorism by an Israeli military court — would automatically face the death penalty. A judge could reduce this to a life sentence only in very special circumstances. It is worth noting that Palestinians in the West Bank are always tried in Israeli military courts, not civilian ones.
For cases in Israeli civilian courts, the law states that anyone who kills an Israeli citizen or resident with the intention of destroying the State of Israel could face either death or life imprisonment. This track applies to Israeli nationals, including Palestinian citizens and residents of east Jerusalem.
The chosen method of execution under the bill is hanging, which must be carried out within 90 days of sentencing, though this can be delayed by up to 180 days.
The new law has quickly sparked serious concern. Critics argue it conflicts with Israel’s own Basic Laws, which are meant to protect people from unfair discrimination. Shortly after the vote, a leading human rights organisation — the Association for Civil Rights in Israel — filed a petition with the Supreme Court, calling for the law to be struck down.
The group pointed out that the law effectively creates two separate legal paths, both aimed at Palestinians. In military courts, it sets a near-automatic death sentence for West Bank Palestinians. In civilian courts, the requirement that defendants must have acted with the goal of ending Israel’s existence essentially means that Jewish perpetrators would rarely, if ever, fall under this law.
The association argued the law should be annulled on both jurisdictional and constitutional grounds.
During the debate in parliament, opposition lawmaker and former deputy Mossad director, Ram Ben Barak, expressed outrage at the legislation.
“Do you understand what it means that there is one law for Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and a different law for the general public for which the State of Israel is responsible?” he asked fellow parliamentarians, using the Israeli name for the West Bank.
“It says that Hamas has defeated us. It has defeated us because we have lost all our values.”
Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech from Ben Gvir’s party, who years ago survived an attack by Palestinian militants in which her husband was killed, urged fellow parliamentarians to approve the bill.
“For years, we endured a cruel cycle of terror, imprisonment, release in reckless deals, and the return of these human monsters to murder Jews again … And today, my friends, this cycle has come full circle.”
The Palestinian Authority condemned the law’s adoption, saying that “Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land”.
“This law once again reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover,” it added.
In February, Amnesty International had urged Israeli lawmakers to reject the legislation, citing its “discriminatory application against Palestinians”.
On Sunday, Britain, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern” over the bill, which they said risked “undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”.
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While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country — the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed in 1962.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence there has soared since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
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