Israel votes for death penalty for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks

[CanAnybodyFindMe]

“Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wore a noose pin on his lapel to signal his support for the bill”

I first heard about this on Facebook and thought it might be anti-Israel fake news. But no, it’s true.

Absolutely horrifying and sickening.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8dkd6lnjdo

Statement by the Foreign Ministers of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom on Israel's Death Penalty Bill.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-on-israels-death-penalty-bill-29-march-2026

It's horrific. It's been discussed on other threads, such as the This is The Reality of What Israel is Doing thread Part 7.

Petition shared on there -

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/754432

It's beyond disgusting, and I pray appeals work 🙏

It’s the apartheid nature of the legislation that’s worrying - it applies only to Palestinians.

Yet time and time again people deny that Israel treats Palestinians differently.

Israelis get a couple of days house arrest for killing Palestinians. Barely acknowledged.

I'm passionately opposed to capital punishment no matter what. It's revolting.
But, I do find this particularly repugnant - partly because of the apartheid aspect; and partly because the majority of Palestinians accused of terrorism are innocent, or charged on the basis of something as minor as throwing stones at armoured soldiers or military vehicles. It's just another way the far right are trying to eliminate Palestinians.
The way they were celebrating too - totally sick.

I’ve often wondered if there is any limit to how far Israel could go in its apartheid treatment of the Palestinians without losing the support of its defenders. Is there any step into unequal treatment of people of different races/ethnicities which would be seen as a step too far? I’m guessing not and it makes me feel really sick.

If anyone’s remotely surprised by this they haven’t been paying enough attention.

I’m not surprised. Horrified, sickened, frightened that even now people will defend Israel’s actions. Probably more shocked at the lack of reaction tbh and what this says about whether there are any limits on what is acceptable from Israel to its supporters.

Israel is now well and truly an apartheid state. There is no saving grace to defend her otherwise, unfortunately.

It’s very very bad, both racist and abhorrent.

But I think we need to see if courts will ever enforce it.

if they do we need to start treating Israel like apartheid S.A, and I am Jewish. But racism is racism, regardless of who is doing it.

Also, a lot of people haven’t been paying enough attention. They have been told that examining Israel’s actions and/or criticising Israel in the same way they might any other country is unacceptable. So they have avoided doing so.

When I read the headline my first thought was this was happening in Gaza and why do they think they have the right anyway

but NO
This is happening in Israel !
The Israeli Governments actions are disgusting and any pro Israelis still denying apartheid in their own country need to look deep at what they are supporting

Israel has always been an apartheid state. It’s what the founding of the Jewish state is based on.

The difference is that nowadays they don’t even try to pretend that they are not.

I've been reading some opinion pieces on this today and some legal experts are suggesting that the Supreme Court is likely to strike it down. So hopefully this is true. I don't know enough about the legislative process in Israel to know if this is a possibility

Well at the same time Palestinians get lauded as heroes and martyrs for killing Israelis and even film it!

Not quite true if you read the BBC link supplied by OP. Effectively though, the law would be very unlikely to affect Jewish Israelis.

In theory, Jewish Israelis could also be executed under the law - but in practice this almost certainly would not happen, as the death penalty could only be carried out where the intention of the attack was to "negate the existence of the state of Israel".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8dkd6lnjdo

Hopefully that's true because it's very frightening the way it's been worded to ensure that once again the judicial system demonstrates extreme apartheid to Palestinians.

The downfall of Israel is more likely to come from within, than any outside threat. Netanyahu is fighting war after war, but ignores the fires being set alight within. Both by the extremist settlers and extremists in power. Israel cannot hold any form of moral highground when the state turns a blind eye to daily settler attacks against Palestinians and the routine ethnic cleansing they carry out in the occupied territories.

Or you could read it as being discriminatory as it doesn’t execute those who kill Palestinians to prevent creation of a viable two state solution by facilitating the take over the West Bank.

Any law that imposes the death penalty on a convicted person is abhorrent. Israel has had the death penalty for as long as the State has existed.
According to Palestinian law, there are 77 crimes that are punishable by the death penalty. From 1994 to 2022, approximately 260 death sentences have been issued: around 230 in Gaza and 30 in the West Bank. In total, during this period, 41 executions were carried out, with the vast majority occurring in Gaza.

Both Israel and Palestine have blood on their hands.

Pointing to Palestinian laws doesn’t make Israel look better. On the contrary, it actually raises the standard Israel should be held to.

Israel claims to uphold liberal, Western values. So why cling to one of the most widely condemned punishments in the world and use it so unfairly?

And let’s be honest about context: this isn’t happening in a vacuum. In a system where Palestinians are overwhelmingly the ones facing security charges, a death penalty law isn’t neutral. It’s predictable who it will be used against - even a PP on this thread who is staunchly pro Israel recognises that.

So no, this isn’t “both sides have blood on their hands” in some equal sense. One side is being judged against the standards it claims to represent, and failing them as it continues to show its true colours on how it treats Palestinians.

If you oppose the death penalty, oppose it everywhere. But don’t pretend it means the same thing in every context.

I agree that in practice it is discriminatory.

I was just pointing out that theoretically Jewish Israelis could also be executed under the law, as stated in the BBC link provided.

If Jewish Israelis carried out attacks where the intention of the attack was to "negate the existence of the state of Israel".

Not a single Israeli citizen has been convicted of killing a Palestinian since 2020.

Thats why I said I agree it is discriminatory in practice.