(NewsNation) — Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has advanced a bill that would amend the penal code to mandate the death penalty for those it deems “terrorists.”
On Monday, lawmakers voted 39-16 in favor of the first reading of the government-backed bill. It’ll head to a parliamentary committee for further review and needs to pass two more readings before it becomes law.
The death penalty already exists in Israeli law; however, it’s only been used once, and that was in 1962, when Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann was executed.
What is the purpose of the proposed legislation?
The bill, proposed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, states that people who kill Israelis due to “racism” and “with the intent to harm the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish nation in its homeland will be sentenced to the death penalty – mandatory,” as reported by the BBC.
A statement from the National Security Committee, as reported by Al Jazeera, states: “Its purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”
Ben-Gvir, who leads the ultranationalist Jewish Power party and has long pushed for the death penalty to be put to a vote in the Knesset, has been an outspoken critic of Palestinian statehood and was one of the few Israeli ministers who voted against the recent Gaza ceasefire deal aimed at ending the war.
“This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement following the vote. “Once the law is finally passed — terrorists will be released only to hell.”
Criticism of the bill
Critics of the bill argue that its wording makes it so that the death penalty would almost exclusively apply to Palestinians who kill Jews and not the other way around. Others say it could make future prisoner swaps harder to conduct.
The bill has been met with harsh criticism from Israeli opposition, with some parties even boycotting the vote, as reported by Reuters. Palestinian advocacy and human rights groups also starkly oppose the proposed legislation.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid was quoted by Israeli media as saying that he wouldn’t vote in favor of the bill.
Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh called the bill “a political, legal, and humanitarian crime.”