Israeli MPs pass bill allowing death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks

LAST UPDATE | 9 hrs ago

ISRAELI POLITICIANS HAVE approved a bill that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks, a move sharply criticised as discriminatory by European nations and rights groups.

The bill was spearheaded by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party.

Of the 120 MPs in the Knesset, 62 voted in favour of the bill, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some 48 MPs voted against the bill, with one abstention. The rest of the politicians were not present.

The legislation would see the death penalty become the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” by an Israeli military court.

The bill says that the sentence may be reduced to life imprisonment under “special circumstances”.

Palestinians in the West Bank are automatically tried in Israeli military courts.

Shortly after the bill passed, a leading Israeli human rights group announced it had filed a petition with the country’s Supreme Court challenging it. 

“The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition today to the High Court of Justice, demanding the annulment of the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, enacted by the Knesset today, March 30, 2026,” the rights group said in a statement.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has condemned the bill. 

“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,” she said in a statement.

“I am particularly concerned about the de facto discriminatory nature of the Bill as it relates to Palestinians.

Ireland urges the Israeli government and parliament to not implement this law.

‘We have lost all our values’

The Palestinian Authority called the passing of the bill a “dangerous escalation”.

“Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land”, the Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry said on X.

“This law once again reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover”.

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Under the bill, in Israeli criminal courts anyone “who intentionally causes the death of a person with the aim of harming an Israeli citizen or resident out of an intention to put an end to the existence of the State of Israel shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment”.

Criminal courts try Israeli nationals, including Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The bill sets the execution method as hanging, adding that it should be carried out within 90 days of the sentencing, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.

In the run-up to the vote, Ben Gvir wore a lapel pin in the shape of a noose, symbolising his support for the legislation.

Opposition lawmaker and former deputy Mossad director, Ram Ben Barak, expressed outrage at the legislation.

“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 for which the State of Israel is responsible?” he asked fellow parliamentarians, using the Israeli name for the West Bank.

“I’ll tell you what it says. It says that Hamas has defeated us. It has defeated us because we have lost all our values,” he said.

“It has defeated us because we are beginning to conduct ourselves like them, unfortunately. Full of hatred. And vengeance.”

‘Discriminatory application’

Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech from Ben Gvir’s party, who years ago survived an attack by Palestinian militants in which her husband was killed, urged fellow parliamentarians to approve the bill.

“I carry with me the memory of my husband, Shuli … the look in the terrorists’ eyes as they shot at us with chilling composure,” she told parliament.

“For years, we endured a cruel cycle of terror, imprisonment, release in reckless deals, and the return of these human monsters to murder Jews again … And today, my friends, this cycle has come full circle.”

In February, Amnesty International urged Israeli lawmakers to reject the legislation, which it said “would allow Israeli courts to expand their use of death sentences with discriminatory application against Palestinians”.

Yesterday, the UK, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern” over the legislation, which they said risked “undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”.

While the death penalty exists for a few crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country – the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed in 1962.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence there has soared since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

© AFP 2026