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benjamin netanyahu
Critics Warn of Mass Executions as Israel Advances Death Penalty Bill for Palestinians
“It seems the criminal apartheid state of Israel has grown impatient with slowly torturing, starving, and beating Palestinian hostages to death,” said one observer.
Mar 25, 2026
Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday voted to advance a bill legalizing execution by hanging of Palestinians convicted of "terrorism"-related killings, a move that prompted opponents to warn of mass executions under what one prominent human rights group called "apartheid" legislation.
The Knesset National Security Committee voted to send the bill for its final two readings before the Knesset General Assembly, which are expected to take place next week.
Bill sponsor Limor Son Har-Melech of the far-right Jewish Power Party called the bill's advancement a "moral and necessary step."
“The law sets out a clear and unequivocal message: Those who choose to murder Jews because they are Jews lose their right to live,” added Har-Melech.
The bill passed its first reading at the full Knesset last November, drawing widespread condemnation for provisions including mandatory death sentences without judicial discretion or possibility of pardons, to be carried out within 90 days.
Since then, amendments have been proposed to avoid accusations of discrimination amid the filing of around 2,000 proposed revisions by opposition lawmakers. Language under which Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians are not subjected to the legislation has been softened; however, critics contend that in practice, the bill would apply predominantly to Palestinian perpetrators.
The bill also retains what critics say is a discriminatory two-track legal regime; one for military courts which have jurisdiction over Palestinians—but not Israeli settlers—in the illegally occupied West Bank, and another for civilian courts inside Israel and East Jerusalem, which, like wider West Bank, has been unlawfully occupied by Israel for nearly 59 years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly pushed for the changes, which also include allowing judicial discretion in sentencing and removing a requirement for trials to take place in military courts. Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—is said to be wary of more global backlash against a country already facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—who was ordered last week to remove a video promoting the bill, in which he stands by a gallows at a memorial to Jews executed in the 1930s and '40s for resisting British occupation—called Tuesday's vote "a historic moment of justice for the state of Israel."
"No more revolving door of attacks, imprisonments, and releases," he added. "This law restores deterrence, restores justice, and sends a clear and unambiguous message to our enemies: Jewish blood is not cheap. We will continue to lead an uncompromising policy against terror until victory.”
Studies in the United States—the only Western democracy that actively executes people—have repeatedly shown that the death penalty does not deter crime.
Knesset members opposing the legislation—who are believed to be outnumbered by more than 2 to 1—condemned Tuesday's vote.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who represents the left-wing Democrats, slammed what he called "an extreme bill that does not exist in any democratic country, with serious moral flaws and profound security recklessness.”
Har-Melech, Ben-Gvir, and other backers of the bill have repeatedly worn noose-shaped lapel bins to show their support for legislation. Ben-Gvir handed out sweets to Knesset colleagues after the bill passed its first reading. Har-Melech recently dressed as an executioner replete with noose and syringe for the Purim holiday, while her husband donned a costume representing what he called the themes of "occupation, expulsion, settlement"—or the conquest, ethnic cleansing, and settler-colonization of Palestine.
"With God's help, on next Purim we will need far more than a single breath to read the names of all the terrorists who were hanged," Har-Melech said in a video message marking the festive holiday. "And to the Jews there was light and joy and gladness."
Palestinians and their defenders warn that, if passed, the bill could open the door to mass executions.
Hamas, which still rules Gaza despite nearly 29 months of Israeli war and siege, called the bill “a dangerous terrorist step that paves the way for carrying out murder and liquidation crimes against our prisoners."
The Palestinian Prisoners Media Office said Wednesday in a statement: "This dangerous development constitutes an unprecedented escalation in the enemy's policies against our prisoners and represents a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions. It reveals premeditated intentions to commit an organized crime against the prisoner movement."
The bill has sparked widespread condemnation around the world. United Nations experts have implored Israel to withdraw the bill, arguing it “would violate the right to life and discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory."
The European Union Diplomatic Service said Tuesday that the EU "opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances."
"Israel has long upheld a de facto moratorium on both executions and capital punishment sentencing, thereby leading by example in the region despite a complex security environment," the agency added. "Approving this bill would represent a grave step backward from this important practice and from positions Israel has itself expressed in the past."
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.
One senior Amnesty International official called the bill "yet another tool within Israel’s institutionalized system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls."
Some critics noted that around 100 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, including some who were allegedly tortured or raped to death.
“Israel is already killing Palestinians on a regular basis—in detention facilities, and in the field, where lethal force is widely used by Israeli settlers and by the military with close to zero accountability,” Yuli Novak, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, told The Guardian on Wednesday, adding, "This law is another tool in this toolbox.’’
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The Costs of Trump's Unnecessary, Illegal War on Iran Keep Mounting
The US and Israel may have started this war, but it won’t be so easily ended. The damage done to Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine will be with us for a generation.
Mar 23, 2026
The costs associated with any war—losses of lives, treasure, and security—are to be expected. And so it is with the US-Israel war on Iran. It was unnecessary. It has been massive. And it has been waged without any clear objective or strategic purpose. Though only a few weeks old, and still too early to project how it will play out, early signs of this war’s costs and consequences are worrisome.
The amounts of weapons that the US and Israel have dropped on Iranian targets have had a devastating impact on Iran’s people and the country’s infrastructure and resources. It is difficult to imagine that this situation can be remedied any time soon. As a result, Iran, which was already struggling with a flagging economy and a reform-minded and restive population, will most likely endure years of political unrest met by massive repression.
Once illegally attacked by the US and Israel, instead of seeking support from neighboring Arab countries, Iran has struck out at them with a vengeance, destroying some of their infrastructure and economic resources. While the Arab Gulf states can recover, the fragile rapprochement that had been developing between them and Iran has been shattered and will not be easily rebuilt.
A disruption in the supply of oil and gas has resulted from Iran’s choking of the Straits of Hormuz and Israel’s and Iran’s bombings of oil and gas facilities on both sides of the Gulf. This has caused a steep rise in the price of fuel, a sharp decline in the stock market, and the loss of hundreds of billions in overall wealth of investments and pension funds. The war’s economic impacts will continue to reverberate throughout the remainder of the year.
This isn’t the first time that Israel or the US have looked at what they had done to these countries and their peoples and said, “Well, that’s finished,” only to find that the devastating toll of the losses they inflicted and dislocation they created produced a festering bitterness that didn’t dissipate in time.
Meanwhile, the excessive amounts of weaponry so far expended in the war has resulted in reported shortages in both the US and Israel, with President Donald Trump asking Congress to approve an additional $200 billion for the Pentagon and a substantial increase in Israel’s military assistance. As with Ukraine and Gaza, the only winners of this war appear to be the US arms manufacturers.
The damage done doesn’t stop there. The Lebanese Hezbollah forgot that Israel never plays by the rules. They responded to Israel’s murder of Iran’s Ayatollah—a spiritual leader for many Shi’a Muslims—by firing a few shells across their border. Despite the fact that Israel has daily violated its five-month-old ceasefire with Lebanon, Israel used Hezbollah’s shelling to launch a sustained and disproportionate attack on Lebanon. To date, Israel has killed over 1,000 Lebanese, has destroyed entire neighborhoods in Beirut, and has ordered almost one-quarter of Lebanon’s people to flee their homes, exacerbating existing sectarian divisions in the country. Israeli forces now appear to be preparing for a longer-term Israeli occupation of Lebanon’s south. This occupation will likely fare no better than the last time Israel attempted it from the late 1970s to 2000.
As if this weren’t enough, Israel’s far-right government has used the cover of war to consolidate annexation of the West Bank. Plans have been accelerated to evacuate and destroy Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley to build a “security wall.” Since the war began, the number of attacks by settlers (with the support of Israeli troops) on Palestinian villages has dramatically increased, now averaging 10 a day. These military and vigilante actions have involved deaths and injuries, land theft, and destruction of homes and properties (including orchards and livestock). While Israel’s intent to take full control of all of Palestine has been steadily proceeding in recent years, the actions of the past few weeks are making it all but irreversible.
Meanwhile, the Gaza genocide continues. The attention of the world may be focused elsewhere, but the nearly 2 million Palestinians who remain in that devastated strip continue to suffer from hunger, lack of proper shelter, sanitation, and medical and other essential support services. There is no way to understand the long-term impact this “hell on earth” existence will have on Gaza’s children. But an educated guess would be that it won’t be good.
At this point, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strutting around as if he were the “Middle East Overlord.” At the same time, there are conflicting reports that the US is either attempting to “wind down” the war or to send ground troops to Iran to “finish the job.” Both are ill-founded. Whatever Trump’s intention, it is a fool’s errand. There is no winding down, nor is there a job to finish.
The US and Israel may have started this war, but it won’t be so easily ended. The damage done to Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine will be with us for a generation. This isn’t the first time that Israel or the US have looked at what they had done to these countries and their peoples and said, “Well, that’s finished,” only to find that the devastating toll of the losses they inflicted and dislocation they created produced a festering bitterness that didn’t dissipate in time. Beware the reckoning.
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Human Rights Watch to Hungary: Arrest Netanyahu on Sight
"Despite its move to leave the ICC, Hungary is still a member country and is still obligated to arrest and surrender individuals wanted by the court," one campaigner stressed.
Mar 20, 2026
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced plans to ditch the International Criminal Court nearly a year ago, during a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the subject of an ICC arrest warrant. With Netanyahu set to return to Hungary on Saturday, and the country's exit from the tribunal not final for a few more months, Orbán faces fresh pressure to arrest Netanyahu.
"Despite its move to leave the ICC, Hungary is still a member country and is still obligated to arrest and surrender individuals wanted by the court," Alice Autin, international justice researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a Friday statement.
"By flouting this obligation, for the second time in less than a year," Autin argued, "Hungary would further entrench impunity for serious crimes in Palestine and once again betray victims who have been denied justice for far too long."
HRW: Hungarian authorities should arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters Hungarian territory. He is expected to travel to Hungary on March 21 to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, shortly before national electionswww.hrw.org/news/2026/03...
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— Bassam Khawaja (@khawaja.bsky.social) March 20, 2026 at 7:33 AM
In November 2024, the ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel. Despite a ceasefire deal reached over five months ago, the Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory continues. There are at least 72,253 Palestinians confirmed dead, and 171,912 more have been injured, though global experts warn the true death toll is likely far higher.
After Netanyahu visited Hungary last April without being arrested, the Hungarian government formally notified United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres that it would withdraw from the Hague-based court in exactly one year, on June 2, 2026.
Soon after that notification, ICC judges found that "Hungary failed to comply with its international obligations" under the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the tribunal, "by not executing the court's request to provisionally arrest Mr. Netanyahu while he was present on Hungarian territory," and referred the matter to the Assembly of States Parties.
Highlighting that the assembly, the court's oversight and legislative body, "noted the judicial finding but failed to take more decisive action" during its annual session in December, HRW called on ICC state parties to "strengthen their responses to noncooperation."
The group specifically pressured members of the European Union, which have declined to "take sufficient measures to prevent Hungary's undermining of the ICC and Orbán’s broader attack on the rule of law," beyond the European Parliament's 2018 decision to initiate a procedure under Article 7 of the EU treaty to assess the bloc member.
According to HRW:
The European Commission indicated in May 2025 that it was "in the process of analyzing Hungary's announced withdrawal from the ICC in the light of the EU's acquis," that is, the body of EU law which includes respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. But there is no indication that the commission's assessment has progressed.
EU leadership and member states, along with other ICC member countries, should press Hungary to reverse its withdrawal from the court, publicly remind Hungary of its ongoing obligations as an ICC member, and urge Hungarian authorities to cooperate with the court by arresting Netanyahu. If the visit takes place, they should strongly condemn Hungary's continued failure to cooperate with the court and unambiguously reaffirm their own commitment to execute all pending ICC warrants, regardless of whom they target.
The European Commission and EU member states should also consider Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC as a further risk of serious breach of fundamental EU values, and consider including the withdrawal in the scope of the current procedure under Article 7. They should also assess what other measures and action should be taken. This could include initiating a procedure that could lead to a finding that Hungary has infringed EU law.
"Orbán's government is about to roll out the red carpet again for Netanyahu, when it is obligated to arrest him," said Autin. "Silence and persistent inaction from the EU risks sending a dangerous message of acquiescence as the Israeli government continues to be responsible for atrocities."
Netanyahu notably skipped the signing of the charter for US President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" for Gaza in Davos, Switzerland, in January, after the Swiss government affirmed its commitment to arresting him.
The Israeli prime minister is set to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary on Saturday, though there is a chance he will not appear in person due to security concerns related to his and Trump's war on Iran, which they launched nearly three weeks ago.
Since the US-Israeli campaign began on February 28, Israel has also ramped up its bombing of alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, despite a November 2024 ceasefire agreement, and again cut off the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
There have also been rumors that Trump—who has previously sent exclusive video messages to CPAC Hungary—may make an appearance, despite the security concerns. The US president has responded to the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant by sanctioning ICC judges.
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