Right-wing lawmakers in Israel are promoting a Bill to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists but the law is likely to only apply when Jews are the victims, critics say.
The Bill states that execution would be carried out within 90 days, without the right of appeal, for “anyone who kills Jews only because they are Jews”, including those who planned attacks or dispatched would-be killers.
The execution would be carried out through lethal injection by the Israel prison service.
National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said: “This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence. Once the law is finally passed, terrorists will be released only to hell.”
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Capital punishment has only been used once in Israel’s history (under civil law), against convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
It is technically allowed in cases of high treason, as well as in certain circumstances under martial law that applies within the army and in the West Bank, but currently requires a unanimous decision from a panel of three judges, and has never been implemented.
A number of human rights organisations have condemned the proposal, which passed its first reading in the Knesset parliament last month by a vote of 39 in favour to 16 against.
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The Association for Civil Rights in Israel warned that the proposed Bill is “directed solely at Palestinian Arabs” and called it another step toward the establishment of a “racist legal system designed to advance selective, oppressive and biased enforcement against this group, through violent and undemocratic means”.
Rabbis for Human Rights cautioned that “opening even the smallest crack that erodes the principle of the sanctity of life could burst the sacred dam and lead to the devaluation of human life in far broader contexts – the death penalty for treason, political murder and more”.
Moves to push through the death penalty for terrorists during the Gaza war were blocked as officials feared that the passage of such a law would set back talks for the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian militants held by Israel.
However, after the last living hostages were released last month, Mr Ben-Gvir presented prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu with an ultimatum: advance the law in three weeks or the party will stop voting with the coalition.
Mr Netanyahu subsequently backed the proposal.
