Israeli parliament approves death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis
People gather to greet freed Palestinian prisoners arriving on buses after their release from Israeli jails.
On Monday, Israel approved the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.
Photo: AP Israel’s Parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.
The bill’s passage marked a major victory for Israel’s far-right, which has pushed hard for the measure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the chamber to vote yes in person.
The law makes the death penalty – by hanging – the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted for nationalistic killings.
The law also gives Israeli courts the authority to impose either the death penalty or life imprisonment on its own citizens.
It is not retroactive and will apply only to future cases.
The measure has been harshly condemned by Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, who say it is racist, draconian and unlikely to deter attacks by Palestinian attackers.
It is expected to face legal challenge in Israel’s Supreme Court.
The bill’s passage marks a victory for Israel’s firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the religious party that introduced the legislation.
Opponents of the legislation call it racist, draconian and unlikely to deter attacks by Palestinian militants.
The legislation calls for the death penalty to go into effect within 30 days, though rights groups are expected to petition Israel’s Supreme Court against it.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir with a small noose pinned to his lapel, in Meitar, Israel on January 28.
Photo: Reuters In the lead-up to the vote, Ben-Gvir has popularised the measure with a small noose pinned to his lapel – an overt reference to the bill’s execution method of choice. “With God’s help, we will fully implement this law and kill our enemies,” he said after the bill received approval to be brought to a final vote, adding it was “the most important law” to be approved by parliament in recent years.
Ben-Gvir’s party is crucial to the coalition helmed by Netanyahu.
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 a
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