The Israeli parliament finalized a controversial bill Monday that would effectively expand the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terrorism and nationalistic murders — a cornerstone issue for the country’s far right for over a decade.
The bill stipulates that residents in the West Bank who kill an Israeli “with the intent to negate the existence of the State of Israel” will be sentenced to death. The court will be authorized to impose life imprisonment instead of the death penalty based on “special reasons or circumstances.” The bill calls for the Israel Prison Service to carry out executions by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with no right to appeal.
The bill effectively establishes the death penalty as a punishment exclusively for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic crimes, while excluding nationalistic murders carried out by Jewish Israelis against Palestinians, drawing an outcry from human rights organizations.
Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military law, while Israeli settlers are subject to Israeli civilian law. The bill amends military court rules in the occupied West Bank, allowing judges to impose the death penalty without needing a unanimous decision. The law will not apply to Hamas militants who participated in the October 7, 2023, massacre, as the government is promoting a separate bill to establish a dedicated tribunal.
A coalition of human rights and civil society organizations in Israel condemned the bill as an “official stamp of approval on a policy of vengeance and racist violence against Palestinians.” The law is particularly egregious as it “targets Palestinians while exempting Israelis,” the coalition said.
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