Israel passes death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis

Harshly condemned by rights groups

The bill’s passage means that the death penalty by hanging is now the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians, who are convicted of nationalistic killings.

It came after the culmination of a years-long push by Israel’s far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offences against Israeli citizens.

Thanks to this law, Israeli courts also have the authority to impose either the death penalty or life imprisonment on their own citizens.

However, it will apply only to future cases, as it is not retroactive.

Israeli and Palestinian rights groups have harshly condemned the measure, as they say it is racist, draconian and unlikely to deter attacks by Palestinian attackers.

Israeli’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the chamber to vote yes in person, and the chamber erupted into cheers when the measure passed.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s firebrand minister of national security who spearheaded the push for the legislation, brandished a bottle in celebration.

“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,” Ben-Gvir said.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel reacted within minutes, and 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 bill instructs military courts to mete out the sentence to those convicted of murdering an Israeli “as an act of terror”, and these courts try only West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens.

However, military courts can change the penalty to life imprisonment in “special circumstances”, the bill says.

Executions should be carried out within 90 days of sentencing, according to the bill.

While Israel does have the death penalty as a possible punishment for acts of genocide, espionage during wartime and certain terror offences, it hasn’t put anyone to death since Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.