Israel has passed a controversial bill approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly terror attacks in military courts, while excluding Israelis who commit the same crimes.
The legislation, adopted on Monday, makes execution the default sentence for Palestinians found guilty of intentionally carrying out fatal attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” by Israeli military courts.
Sixty-two lawmakers, including Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted in favour, while 48 opposed. One abstained, and the rest were absent, reports The Telegraph.
The bill has drawn sharp criticism internationally. Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern,” warning that the measure risks undermining Israel’s democratic commitments.
UN experts also condemned the legislation, noting its vague definition of “terrorist,” which they said could allow executions for conduct not genuinely terrorist in nature.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a hard-Right figure, openly celebrated the bill. He wore a lapel pin shaped like a noose during the debate and later posted on X: “We made history!!! We promised. We delivered.”
Under the law, executions will be carried out by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with a possible extension of up to 180 days. The bill allows for reduction to life imprisonment only under “special circumstances.” Palestinians in the West Bank are automatically tried in Israeli military courts, meaning the law applies exclusively to them.
Human rights groups immediately challenged the legislation. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition with the Supreme Court, arguing the law violates Israel’s Basic Laws, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination.
“The law creates two parallel tracks, both designed to apply to Palestinians,” the group said, adding that Jewish perpetrators are structurally excluded.
Opposition lawmakers voice outrage
Ram Ben Barak, a former deputy Mossad director, told parliament, “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? It says Hamas has defeated us because we have lost all our values.”
The bill was introduced by Limor Son Har-Melech of Ben Gvir’s party, who survived a Palestinian militant attack years ago in which her husband was killed. She said the law ends a “cruel cycle” of terror, imprisonment, release, and repeated attacks.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the measure, saying Israel has “no sovereignty over Palestinian land” and accusing it of legitimising extrajudicial killings under legislative cover. Amnesty International had earlier urged lawmakers to reject the bill, citing its discriminatory application.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only civilian execution was that of Adolf Eichmann, a Holocaust architect, in 1962.
Global condemnation over the law
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the legislation as a “dangerous escalation.” In a social media post, it stressed that “Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land” in the occupied territory. The ministry added, “This law once again reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover.”
Hamas, the Palestinian group, condemned the measure as a “dangerous precedent that threatens the lives” of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. In a statement, Hamas said, “This decision reaffirms the [Israeli] occupation and its leaders’ contempt for international law and their disregard for all humanitarian norms and conventions.”
The group urged the international community, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to act swiftly to protect Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s “brutality.”
The UN Human Rights Office in Palestine called on Israel to “immediately repeal the discriminatory death penalty law,” warning that it violates Israel’s obligations under international law.
On X, the office wrote, “The United Nations opposes the death penalty under all circumstances. The implementation of this new law would violate international law’s prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”
It added, “Additionally, this law further entrenches Israel’s violation of the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid as it will exclusively apply to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel, who are often convicted after unfair trials.”
Amnesty International urged Israel to scrap the law, describing it as “a public display of cruelty, discrimination and utter contempt for human rights.”
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said that the law’s passage comes just weeks after Israel dropped charges against soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.
“For years, we have seen an alarming pattern of apparent extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings of Palestinians – with the perpetrators also enjoying near-total impunity. This new law which allows for state-sanctioned executions is a culmination of such policies,” she said.
Alain Berset, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, labelled the law a “serious regression.” He said, “The death penalty is a legal anachronism incompatible with contemporary human-rights standards.
Moreover, any application of the death penalty that could be characterised as discriminatory is unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law.”
Berset added Israel is party to several Council of Europe conventions and participates in cooperation mechanisms. “In this context, the Council of Europe will closely monitor upcoming developments regarding this law. It will examine its implications for the Council of Europe conventions to which Israel is a party, as well as for the cooperation mechanisms in which this state participates.”
Meanwhile, Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee condemned the bill in a statement, saying she was “particularly concerned about the de facto discriminatory nature of the Bill as it relates to Palestinians.”
She also said, “The right to life is a fundamental human right and Ireland is consistently and strongly opposed to the use of the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances.”
Additionally, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, posting on X just hours before the law was passed, said Italy, Germany, France and the UK had asked Israel to withdraw the bill.
“The commitments undertaken, especially with the resolutions voted on at the United Nations, for a moratorium on the death penalty cannot be disregarded,” he wrote.
“For us, life is an absolute value; arrogating to oneself the right to take it away in order to inflict a punishment is an inhuman measure that violates the dignity of the person.”
