TEL AVIV: Israel’s parliament has approved a controversial bill allowing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners. The legislation has been widely criticised as discriminatory and has already been challenged in court.
The bill passed with 62 lawmakers voting in favour, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 48 voting against.
It was introduced by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who publicly signalled his support by wearing a noose-shaped lapel pin ahead of the vote.
Under the proposed law, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who are found guilty by military courts of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks would face the death penalty as the default punishment.
However, the sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment under “special circumstances.” Palestinians in the West Bank are typically tried in Israeli military courts.
The legislation also applies to Israeli criminal courts. It states that anyone who deliberately causes the death of a person with the intent of harming an Israeli citizen or resident, or with the aim of undermining the existence of the State of Israel, could face either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The bill specifies hanging as the method of execution and mandates that sentences be carried out within 90 days, with a possible delay of up to 180 days.
Critics argue that the law may conflict with Israel’s Basic Laws, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination.
Shortly after its passage, a prominent human rights organisation filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to have the legislation overturned.
“The law creates two parallel tracks, both designed to apply to Palestinians,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement.
“In military courts — which have jurisdiction over West Bank Palestinians — it establishes a near-mandatory death sentence,” the rights group said.
Discriminatory application
Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, a member of Ben Gvir’s party, called on fellow parliamentarians to support the bill.
She referenced her personal experience of surviving an attack by Palestinians years earlier, in which her husband was killed.
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 dismiss the bill, citing its “discriminatory application against Palestinians.”
On Sunday, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy voiced “deep concern” over the bill, warning that it could “undermine Israel’s commitments to democratic principles.”
Although the death penalty remains on the books for a limited number of offences in Israel, the country is widely regarded as having effectively abolished its use in practice.
The last execution was carried out in 1962, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was put to death.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence in the territory has surged following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the ongoing Gaza war.
