Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Controversial proposal being debated in Parliament targets Palestinians convicted by Israeli military courts. Opponents say it is racist and could lead to the execution of innocent people.
The last time Israel applied the death penalty was in 1962when he executed , a Nazi who played a fundamental role in the Holocaust. He was subjected to a long trial in Jerusalem.
However, decades later, and following the terrorist attacks led by the on October 7, 2023, new pressure emerged from Israeli parliamentarians to pass a highly controversial law reestablishing the death penalty for convicted Palestinians by Israeli military courts.
Opponents of the bill argue that it is unethical and racist, as it discriminates between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, as it was designed to apply only to Palestinian citizens.
The bill, in its current form, establishes the mandatory death penalty for certain crimes committed by Palestinians tried in military courts, in addition to eliminating any possibility of pardon or commutation of the sentence.
The bill passed its first reading in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in November 2025. It was then returned to the National Security Commission for further deliberation and still has to go through second and third readings to become law. It’s unclear if — or when — that will happen.
The bill is sponsored by deputies from the far-right party Jewish Powerwith the support of Likud deputies, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahuand of the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu.
After the vote, Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of Jewish Power and Minister of National Security, classified the initiative as “the most important bill in the history of the State of Israel”.
“Let all terrorists know: this bill is what will stop them. It is the bill that will terrify them. It is the bill that will make them think a thousand times before committing another October 7th,” he said.
Domestic opposition to the death penalty
Israeli opponents of the project, including security officials, former Supreme Court justices, doctors and rabbis, criticized it in an open letter for containing “particularly extreme provisions and exceptional.”
Hagai Levine, president of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, participated in the Knesset discussions and opposes the legislation.
“We are against this type of death penalty, which is racist and without judgment, and without taking into account all the different aspects that have to be considered,” said Levine, who also led the medical team at the Forum for Hostages and Families of the Missing during the war in the Gaza Strip.
Levine recognizes that the feeling of part of the Israeli population has changed, with some advocating harsher punishments after the October 7 attacks. Over the years, there have been several attempts to reintroduce capital punishment, but they have not gone very far.
“I was the doctor for the hostages and their families, and I saw the horrible impact on people’s lives and the murder of innocent people. I completely understand these feelings of revenge. But one should not base a judgment on fury and revenge. We are a democratic country. We have to make a good judgment for the good of the country,” said the doctor.
Nearly 1200 people were killed during terrorist attacks by the Islamist group Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, and 251 people were captured as hostages. In the devastating war that ensued in Gaza, more than 70 thousand Palestinians died — according to the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, and many others are missing under the rubble. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers also died.
“This Israeli bill is terrifying for the Palestinian peopleand we oppose it,” Amjad Al Najjar, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told DW. “It creates a lot of tension and fear in the families of Palestinian prisoners.”
What does the bill say about the death penalty?
The bill stipulates that a person who causes the death of Israeli citizens “deliberately or through indifference, for reasons of racism or hostility toward a population, and with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the national rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland, will be sentenced to death,” a Knesset statement said after the first reading.
The bill also grants more power to military courts in the occupied West Bankwhich exclusively judge Palestinians living under military law in the territory. According to the bill, military courts could impose “the death penalty by a simple majority of the judges on the panel, and an imposed death sentence cannot be commuted.”
The bill does not clearly define which constitutes an act that aims to “harm the State of Israel” or the “rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland”.
UN calls for withdrawal of bill
Israeli, Palestinian and international opponents denounce that the law violates the right to life, can lead to the execution of innocent people and it is far from being a true deterrent.
Several experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council called on Israel to withdraw the bill that “proposes the mandatory death penalty for terrorist acts, which would violate the right to life and would discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
In their statement, the experts further stated that “by eliminating judicial and prosecutorial discretion, the bill prevents a court from considering individual circumstances, including mitigating factors, and imposing a penalty proportionate to the crime.”
The Palestinian human rights association Addameer, which defends detained Palestinians, said that “the enactment of a new law imposing the death penalty exclusively against Palestinians marks a new episode in the ongoing series of oppression and constitutes a serious escalation in Israel’s widespread violations against Palestinians, including hundreds of extrajudicial executions.”
In Israel, political correspondent Tal Schneider highlighted that the Israeli secret service, the Shin Bet, also known as Shabak, “has already opposed this in the past” considering that it could be counterproductive, as it could encourage more attacks.
Death penalty in Israel executed two people
The death penalty exists in Israel for war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes under military law in military courts. On the rare occasions when it was imposed in military courts for terrorism-related crimes, all sentences were converted to life imprisonment upon appeal.
Only two people were executed after convictions that carried the death penalty in Israel. The first execution took place after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the creation of Israel.
More Tobianskian Army officer, was falsely accused of espionage and executed for treason after an impromptu military tribunal. He would end up being exonerated posthumously.
In 1962, the second execution took place, when the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann He was hanged after being convicted of war crimes. He was captured in Argentina by an Israeli secret unit and put on trial before a special court in Jerusalem.
Rise of right-wing populism
Critics say supporters of the death penalty are using it for their own political gains in an election year. Legislative elections in Israel are scheduled for October 2026, but may be brought forward.
Minister Ben Gvir is one of the main voices defending the return of the death penalty. As on other issues, he turned this into a populist campaign and repeatedly threatened to abandon the coalition.
During his tenure as Minister of National Security, Israeli human rights groups such as Physicians for Human Rights reported a increase in cases of abuse and torture in Israeli prisons and detention centers. Ben Gvir has previously posted videos of himself mocking Palestinian prisoners in prison and boasting that they are being kept in “minimal conditions”.
According to the Israeli human rights NGO HaMoked, at least 94 Palestinians, detained for security reasons and prisoners, died in Israeli prisons or military detention facilities from the start of the war until August 2025.
