Israel passes law imposing death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terror attacks

TEL AVIV: Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, on Monday (local time) passed a controversial law mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of terrorist acts, drawing condemnation from the European Union and the United Nations.

The legislation, approved by a 62-47 vote, was backed by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, The Times of Israel reported. The bill says that people in the West Bank who kill an Israeli “with the intent to negate the existence of the State of Israel” will face the death penalty.

Judges may impose life imprisonment only under vaguely defined “special circumstances,” while executions must take place within 90 days of sentencing. “This is a day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies. No more revolving door for terrorists, but a clear decision. Whoever chooses terrorism chooses death,” Ben Gvir said, as quoted by The Times of Israel.

62 בעד, 48 נגד, 1 נמנע | חוק עונש מוות למחבלים עבר בקריאה שנייה ושלישית@limor_sonhrmelh pic.twitter.com/GIhFYNMyOl

— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) March 30, 2026

The law requires only a simple majority of judges to hand down the sentence and removes any right of appeal. It is designed to apply to future cases and will not be applied retroactively, including to perpetrators of the 2023 Hamas-led attacks on October 7, whose prosecution will be addressed under a separate bill.

While Israel formally allows the death penalty, executions have been extremely rare, with only one carried out – the 1962 hanging of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Previously, capital punishment could only be imposed under narrowly defined circumstances and required a unanimous judicial panel, a threshold never met in terrorism cases.

The legislation applies exclusively to Palestinians, who are tried in military courts, while Israeli citizens are tried in civilian courts. A separate provision allows the death penalty for anyone who “intentionally causes the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel,” a definition critics say effectively excludes Jewish perpetrators.

The law has drawn condemnation from Palestinian authorities and international bodies. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it “a crime and a dangerous escalation in the occupation’s policies,” adding that Israeli laws do not apply to Palestinians and that the legislation “reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover.”

UN Human Rights Palestine said, “Israel must immediately repeal the discriminatory death penalty law passed today by the Knesset, as it contravenes Israel’s obligations under international law. The United Nations opposes the death penalty under all circumstances. The implementation of this new law would violate international law’s prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. Additionally, this law further entrenches Israel’s violation of the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid as it will exclusively apply to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel, who are often convicted after unfair trials.”

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset said, “The vote in the @KnessetIL reinstating the death penalty is a major civilisational setback. A choice that distances those who made it from the system of values upheld by the @COE. They assume a historic responsibility.”

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added, “Our government, together with those of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, through a joint statement, has requested the Israeli government to withdraw the bill that introduces the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism. The commitments undertaken, especially with the resolutions voted on at the United Nations, for a moratorium on the death penalty cannot be disregarded. For us, life is an absolute value; arrogating to oneself the right to take it away in order to inflict a punishment is an inhuman measure that violates the dignity of the person.”

Earlier in the year, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Israeli authorities to drop plans for mandatory death sentences exclusively for Palestinians, saying such proposals violate international law and discriminate against Palestinians.

“When it comes to the death penalty, the United Nations is very clear and opposes it under all circumstances. It is profoundly difficult to reconcile such punishment with human dignity and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people,” Turk said.

Turk further stressed that the law conflicts with Israel’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He highlighted concerns over the mandatory nature of the death sentences, which remove judicial discretion and violate the right to life, and criticised the discriminatory targeting of Palestinians.

The UN High Commissioner noted that military courts in the occupied West Bank would be required to impose the death penalty for all convictions of intentional killing, while amendments to Israeli Penal Law would also allow capital punishment for killing Israelis in terrorist attacks. He warned that retroactive application to perpetrators of the October 7, 2023, attacks would breach the principle of legality under international law. (ANI)