'Unprecedented Savagery': Israel Advances Bill Allowing Execution of Palestinian Prisoners

A parliamentary committee in Israel on Sunday advanced legislation to allow the execution of Palestinians convicted of "racially or ideologically motivated" murders of Israelis, drawing condemnation from human rights defenders.

The Knesset National Security Committee voted to approve the first reading of a bill sponsored by Limor Son Har-Melech of the Jewish Power party requiring the execution of any "terrorist convicted of murder motivated by racism or hostility toward a particular public, and under circumstances where the act was committed with the intent to harm the state of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland."

Explanatory notes to the bill state that the purpose of the legislation—which would not apply to Israelis who murder Palestinians for similar reasons—is to "nip terrorism in the bud and create a weighty deterrent."

In order to become law, the bill must pass three readings.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads Jewish Power, said that Palestinians "need to know that if even a single hair of a hostage falls, there will be a death sentence."

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954; currently, its only capital offenses are crimes against humanity and treason. The only execution in Israeli history occurred in 1962 when Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann was hanged for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society condemned the bill as "unprecedented savagery" and cited Israel's ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which according to the Gaza Health Ministry has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, wounded over 168,000 others, and left upward of 2 million more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

Gal Hirsch, the Israeli government's coordinator for hostages and missing persons, warned that the bill could endanger the lives of Israelis held by Hamas since October 7, 2023, "especially since we are currently engaged in a combined military and diplomatic effort to bring back the hostages."

Relatives of Israeli hostages also denounced the bill, with Lishay Miran Lavi, wife of captive Omri Miran, writing Sunday on the social media site X: "Survivors of captivity clearly told us that every media stunt about the death penalty for terrorists leads to harsher conditions and violence against the hostages. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu knows this. Gal Hirsch knows this. Ben Gvir knows this."

According to Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, Israel currently imprisons at least 10,800 Palestinians, including 450 children and 49 women. More than 3,600 prisoners are held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

The United Nations human rights office reported last year that Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to torture including electric shocks, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, attacks by dogs, sexual violence, and other abuse—which the agency called "a preventable crime against humanity."