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

I think it is worded to specificaly exclude Jewish terrorists and I am not the only one.

The central problem with the law is that it is intentionally racist — carefully designed to apply solely to Palestinian terrorists, not Jewish ones.

Accordingly, it does not settle for the standard definition of murder, nor even murder “under exceptionally grave circumstances,” as Israeli law stipulates regarding the release of prisoners in diplomatic deals — a clause written as a direct reaction to historical prisoner exchanges, most notably the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.

Instead, the new legislation specifically defines the crime as “intentionally causing the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel.”

The objective is to distinguish between Palestinian terrorists — who, according to the law’s drafters, carry out terror attacks to deny the state’s existence — and Jewish terrorists. It is highly unlikely that a court would determine that murders committed by the latter, even if classified as terror attacks, were carried out for the purpose of denying the existence of the state.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/the-death-penalty-law-for-palestinians-convicted-of-deadly-acts-of-terror-is-unconstitutional/amp/

This.

I don't agree with it either as against the death penalty but it's no worse than what a lot of other countries do.

In at least 10 countries around the world ‘apostasy’, which is the act of leaving religion, is punishable by death. These countries are: Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Some of the countries criticising Israel should get their own house in order re the death penalty before criticising Israel for introducing it for convicted terrorists.

humanists.international/get-involved/resources/the-right-to-apostasy-in-the-world/#:~:text=In%20Afghanistan%2C%20Maldives%2C%20Qatar%2C,apostasy%20is%20punishable%20by%20death.

If the law will only be used on Palestinians, it is only for Palestinians. You know this, I know this. Why keep saying otherwise?

Ah, now you’re trying the “this is just about the death penalty” gambit. No, it isn’t.

Not supporting racist laws is 'Islamist propaganda' now? Australia, Germany, France, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom all parroting 'Islamist propaganda'? They all acknowledge 'the de facto discriminatory character of the bill.' I wonder why you can't?

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

@FloralDeerPattern but we are not supporting the proposal. Just querying the double standards and the motivation for holding Israel to special scrutiny.

The 'other countries do it' whataboutery is so strange.

First off, I don't support the law, but using the Times of Israel is a classic "appeal to authority" fallacy: that quote doesn't actually answer my question. If a Jew is found guilty of a crime deemed to be attacking the state of Israel, would he be exempt from the death penalty because he was Jewish?

If not (and I think not) then Israel is being attacked for doing what many other states in that part of the world have been doing for years, namely having a death penalty for the crime of attacking their country, but not for someone attacking a neighbouring country from within their borders.

One can think the death penalty for such a crime is wrong, and still point out the double standard there.

I’ve yet to see any Israel supporters on this thread except @Twiglets1 condemning (or being concerned about in Twiglets case - trying not to put words into your mouth) the racist/discriminatory nature of this legislation. Only disagreeing with the death penalty generally. Happy to be corrected though.

But how is it racist if Jews who commited the same crime (namely against the state of Israel) would also be eligible for the death penalty?

This is a genuine question, and one I've not seen anyone answer.

Honestly, it makes me cringe.

So all those other countries are "apartheid" too are they?
If so, then fine, no double standard.

It’s just unconvincing playing with words. Jews will not be convicted of committing the same crime (namely against the state of Israel). Do you honestly believe they will?

It’s the reality of a situation that matters not the words used to twist that reality.

Could have fooled me.

Well yes. There aren’t many Israeli Jews who will seek to try and obliterate Israel and the Jews.

Well obviously not many Jews will want to destroy the state of Israel, but you'd be surprised at what some people will do:

He Guarded Israel's Skies - Then Sold Its Secrets to Iran

Presumably this guy Raz Cohen, if he committed the same crime after this bill had passed, would be eligible for the death penalty?

Israel’s focus is on obliterating Palestine and the Palestinians. That is the sole point of the bill

The ‘double standards’ lie within the wording which effects practices amounting to apartheid.

Amnesty International says that the system routinely relies on evidence extracted through torture and abuse. The death sentence will be imposed even if prosecutors do not seek it. Convictions need no longer be unanimous. There is no possibility of pardon. Executions must take place within 90 days.

Within Israeli civilian courts, the new law imposes the death penalty for deliberately killing a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel”. Life imprisonment can only substitute in unspecified “special” circumstances.

Images and footage of Israeli ministers gleefully jigging about sporting their noose badges toasting this obscene law with champagne speak for themselves.

apple.news/AXVvoekczQByQfCIoXjtDKg

If this hadn't all begun with a massacre by Palestinians against Israeli civilians, you might have a stronger point. But it did.

No
This didn’t all start with the massacre of Israeli civilians by Palestinians
Not all Palestinians are Hamas
Not only are you inflaming what happened on October 7th for your own narrative you are ignoring history
You are also forgetting Netanyahu's speech in September 2023

The motive behind Netanyahu’s far right Government has been made clear for a long time before October 7th and the killing of innocent Palestinians evident throughout.

Unless you're saying that the Oct 7th attack was defensive, then in terms of military action it did all start then.

And for info, there's no such thing as a defensive action that deliberately targets civilians to kidnap or murder - by definition that's a crime against humanity. At the time that happened, there was no corresponding physical threat to Palestinians from Israel. So, Hamas began the hostilities.

Suggest you look at the the number of Palestinians killed by Israel prior to October 7th
and
The UNGA meeting in September 2023
Its clear you aren’t aware of the Israeli Governments real intentions or actions

So the military action 2 weeks before Oct 7 when Israel were bombing Gaza doesn't count? Oct 7 definitely marked an escalation but to pretend that Israel were not militarily involved with Gaza before Oct 7 is pure fantasy.

Kidnapping civilians is NOT an "escalation" in military actions, it's a war crime/crime against humanity or whatever depending on the context. It is NOT a legal military action.

Yes. Exactly. You codify into law that crimes against group of people A will be treated more severely than crimes against another group of people B. And then say everyone is being treated equally because everyone who commits crimes against group A is punished equally 🙄

What about people who seek to try to obliterated Gaza and the Palestinians?

Ah, the “it all started on October 7th 2023” manoeuvre.

Agree

and this research and analysis very clearly identifies the lead up
Nothing happens in a vacuum

‘ Large segments of the international public were surprised by the October 7th and subsequent events in Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Yet, several factors had culminated over the past year which - if analysed properly- would certainly lead us to conclude that disruption of the status quo was only a matter of time.

Top amongst these factors was the installment of an extreme right wing Israeli government in December 2022, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, which immediately proceeded to escalate tensions and outright hostility against the Palestinians in both rhetoric and practice.

A few days after the government’s formation, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosquecompound in East Jerusalem despite all warnings that such an action would inflame tensions.

In March of 2023, the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich called for the Palestinian village of Hawara to be ‘wiped out’ by the Israeli government, which further fueled anger and frustration among Palestinians.

In recent years, Israel has confiscated over 400 dunams from Hawara, Beita, and Awarta villages to make way for a huge bypass road that will be used by the Israeli military and settlers. In addition, Israel set up the Hawara military checkpoint on a road leading into Nablus, effectively cutting the city off from neighboring villages. As a result, tensions grew between Palestinians of Nablus and the Israeli army. In what later was called a ‘pogrom’ by an Israeli Military Commander, and with full support from Israel's army, settlers rampaged Hawaravillage and burned the cars, homes, and other Palestinian properties therein. Jenin, another Palestinian city in the West Bank, was a target for Israel’s army. The city along with its refugee camp has been attacked three times since the beginning of 2023. The latest raid was in July and resulted in the death of twelve Palestinians, including four children. Overall, these raids were violent and deadly, whether committed by the Israeli army or settlers, and had resulted in the

death of at least 200 Palestinians in the West Bank making 2023 the deadliest year for Palestinians, particularly children, in the West Bank since 2002.

With ultranationalists and ultra-orthodox Jewish parties occupying high level positions, Netanyahu’s cabinet has pledged to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
-In June, the installment of more than 5,000 new settlement homes was approved by the Israeli government.
-Since January of this year Israel has proceeded with 12,855 settler housing units across the West Bank.
According to Peace Now, this was the single biggest number of new settlements since it started tracking such activity in 2012.

Three weeks before the October 7 events, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a map of “The New Middle East,” without any image or mention of Palestine, during his speech to the UN’s General Assembly in New York. The maps did not show the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza. This reaffirmed what Palestinians knew, that there was no chance that Netanyahu’s government would proceed with peace talks with Palestinians.

Throughout his years in power, Netanyahu has provided consistent evidence that an independent Palestinian state was not on his agenda, while attacks and settler encroachment continued to try and push Palestinians off their land.

The frequency and multitude of violations lead several Palestinian leaders to warn that such escalations would ignite the conflict with Israelis. However, the Israeli authorities continued to turn a deaf ear to these warnings and so did the international community, which from a Palestinian perspective, continues a pattern of behaviour they have endured since 1948.
security in context