3 Bills Requiring Death Penalty for Terrorists Who Kill Israelis Pass Knesset First Reading By The Media Line Staff Lawmakers in the Knesset gave initial approval Monday to three government-backed bills that would broaden the circumstances under which Israeli courts could impose the death penalty on people convicted of killing Israelis. The first-reading votes came […]
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The Media Line: 3 Bills Requiring Death Penalty for Terrorists Who Kill Israelis Pass Knesset First Reading
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3 Bills Requiring Death Penalty for Terrorists Who Kill Israelis Pass Knesset First Reading
By The Media Line Staff
Lawmakers in the Knesset gave initial approval Monday to three government-backed bills that would broaden the circumstances under which Israeli courts could impose the death penalty on people convicted of killing Israelis.
The first-reading votes came after a late-night, sometimes chaotic session that ended 39-16 for the proposal from Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech. Companion bills from Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer passed their first readings by 36-15 and 37-14, respectively.
Son Har-Melech’s text would require courts to sentence to death anyone judged to have carried out a nationally motivated killing of an Israeli. It would also permit military court panels operating in the West Bank to hand down death sentences by a simple majority rather than a unanimous ruling and would strip regional military commanders of the power to commute such penalties. Critics warned the bill’s language — which targets those who kill Israelis out of “racism” and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land” — risks being applied unevenly and would likely fall disproportionately on Palestinian defendants.
Although capital punishment remains on the statute books, Israel has imposed it only once: the 1962 execution of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann.
Party tactics and absences shaped votes. Yisrael Beytenu joined the coalition in supporting the measures, but most opposition lawmakers did not participate in the ballot: all Blue and White MKs and all but one of Yesh Atid’s members stayed away, following Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s refusal to engage with what he called Otzma Yehudit’s “political stunts.” Several Shas legislators also missed the late-night vote; United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah wing publicly opposed the bills, with spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando warning that the measures “could spark bloodshed.”
The debate grew heated on the floor. After a speech by Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh, a verbal clash escalated into a brief physical confrontation. Odeh accused lawmakers of pursuing a failed policy of transfer; Likud MK Tali Gottlieb snapped back that “he cannot say that,” and members pushed and shoved as security stepped in.
With first readings complete, the bills will return to committee and the chamber for further legislative steps before any final decision is possible.