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'Unprecedented Savagery': Israel Advances Bill Allowing Execution of Palestinian Prisoners
"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," said the wife of an Israeli abducted by Hamas.
Sep 29, 2025
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."
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Senate Dems, Sanders Call for US Recognition of Palestinian Statehood
"The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction," said Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Sep 19, 2025
As some of the United States' closest allies join most of the world's nations in officially recognizing Palestinian statehood amid Israel's worsening genocide and famine in Gaza, US Sen. Jeff Merkley and seven colleagues on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to follow suit.
The senators introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on the president "to recognize a demilitarized state of Palestine, as consistent with international law and the principles of a two-state solution, alongside a secure state of Israel."
The resolution—which is cosponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)—repeatedly mentions Hamas "terrorism" while ignoring the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes for which fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The resolution's demands are "first, an immediate ceasefire, return of all hostages, and influx of aid. But then, a foundation for peace and prosperity for the future—and the only viable path for that is two states for two peoples," said Merkley, who was the first senator to back a Gaza ceasefire.
"The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction," Merkley added.
I’m leading the first-ever Senate resolution in support of Palestinian statehood. There is only one pathway that builds security, peace, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. That path is two states for two peoples.
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— Senator Jeff Merkley (@merkley.senate.gov) September 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Van Hollen—who has been one of the Senate's strongest critics of US complicity in Israel's obliteration of Gaza and even tried to visit the strip with Merkley last month—said, "The most viable way to create some light at the end of the very dark tunnel in the Middle East, and assure security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is a two-state solution."
"Given that the Netanyahu government has obstructed that goal and the Trump administration has abandoned it, the Congress must make its position clear," he added.
Kaine said: "The US supported a historic United Nations resolution in 1947 to establish two states—Israel and Palestine. After nearly 80 years, the world has only kept one of those two promises and the lack of progress toward Palestinian autonomy has been a source of continuing tension in the region."
"Since July 2024 when the Israeli Knesset voted to deny a path to Palestinian statehood and made clear that Israel would not accept Palestinian autonomy, I have believed the US should no longer condition recognition on Israeli assent but rather on Palestinian willingness to live in peace with its neighbors," he added.
Approximately 150 of the UN’s 193 member states have officially recognized Palestine. Since October 2023, countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have openly boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood. The prime minister has made clear his intention for Israel to control "from the river to the sea"—meaning all of Palestine—as envisioned in the founding platform of his Likud party.
Last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who, like many of his far-right compatriots, denies the very existence of the Palestinian people—proposed another expansion of Israel's illegal settler colonization of the occupied West Bank, asserting that the construction of thousands of new apartheid homes "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."
Netanyahu signed the proposal last week, declaring that "there will be no Palestinian state"—a position shared by all 15 Likud ministers, who want the prime minister to annex the entire West Bank by year's end.
Smotrich is also among the Israeli officials who favor annexing Gaza, ethnically cleansing its Palestinian population, and opening the strip for Israeli colonization. Trump, meanwhile, has proposed US control of Gaza and transformation of its Mediterranean coast into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Lawmakers in Israel's Knesset, or Parliament, have also worked to block progress toward a two-state solution. In July, they hosted a conference titled "The Gaza Riviera–From Vision to Reality" advocating the conquest of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in order to make the strip what Smotrich called "an inseparable part of Israel."
Critics allege that the ultimate goal of some Israeli leaders is the realization of a so-called "Greater Israel" stretching from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq.
The senators' resolution comes as more and more congressional Democrats accuse Israel of genocide, and reflects the wishes of a majority of Americans, according to recent polling.
On Wednesday, Sanders became the first upper chamber lawmaker to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza following the publication of a United Nations commission report that reached the same conclusion. Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice launched by South Africa and backed by around two dozen countries.
However, on the whole, the US government—which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support—continues to back Israel. On Thursday, the US for the sixth time vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and release of all hostages held by Hamas.
This, as Israeli forces intensified their bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza City during Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing that aims to leave Israel fully in control of the strip.
Israeli forces killed dozens more Palestinians on Friday, the 714th day of a genocide that's left more than 240,000 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving, with no end in sight.
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Israeli Knesset Hosts Conference on Plan to 'Occupy Gaza' and 'Relocate Gazans'
"There is a purpose to this war, and it’s a criminal one," wrote Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz this past weekend.
Jul 23, 2025
The Israeli Knesset hosted a conference on Tuesday in which far-right politicians and settlers openly discussed a "proposed plan" to cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and annex it for Israel.
At the conference, titled "The Gaza Riviera–from vision to reality," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense ministry, said "We will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel."
Throughout the speech, he was met with cheers from other members of the Knesset and radical settler groups in attendance.
Smotrich claimed that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir favors the idea of occupying part of Gaza through a so-called "security annexation."
"I truly believe there is a tremendous opportunity here," Smotrich said, suggesting that Israel begin "with the northern border [area of the strip] and establish three communities there. We are already talking about it. Some call it a 'security annexation'."
Smotrich described this occupation as a path to fully conquer Gaza, and spoke of "a proposed plan to relocate Gazans to other countries," which he said "will serve as a means of facilitating the settlement of the strip."
He spoke of a "green light from the president of the United States to turn Gaza into a prosperous strip, a resort town with employment," referring to U.S. President Trump's stated support for efforts to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to turn the strip into a "resort town."
During the conference, many plans for the Jewish settlement of Gaza and the expulsion of Palestinians were presented by Knesset members and settler groups.
Daphna Liel, of Israeli news network Channel 12, reported that one plan, presented by the far-right settler group Nachala, involved the construction of over 300,000 housing units for 1.2 million Jewish settlers, who'd live there "without Gazans because they will all be expelled or emigrate, and not only voluntarily."
Daniella Weiss , the leader of Nachala, said: "The Arab Gaza chapter is over."
"And then they wonder why the world isn't convinced that Israel is there only to defend itself," Liel wrote in response.
Kariv Galid, a member of the Knesset from the Democrats—a minor center-left party in Israel—expressed shock at Smotrich's language.
"Sometimes it is appropriate to be cautious, to be meticulous, and to choose words and titles carefully. Sometimes it is necessary to say things clearly and as they are," Galid wrote on X. "The Finance Minister of the State of Israel, who also serves as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry, is calling for the commission of war crimes."
These statements are hardly new for Smotrich, who has spoken at length about the dream of conquering Gaza and evicting its people at multiple other conferences over the past two years.
But it's the first time such a conference has been held in Israel's parliament, revealing the extent to which ethnic cleansing has been assimilated into the mainstream of the nation's politics.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel had no plans to resettle Gaza or to force the Palestinians out, but recent events and reporting suggest otherwise.
Last week, Barak Ravid of Axios reported on a meeting between Mossad spy chief David Barnea and White House envoy Steve Witkoff in which the two discussed the "evacuation" of Palestinians from Gaza to other countries, including Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya.
That news came as it was revealed that Israel had destroyed over 70% of the buildings in Gaza and that its blockade of humanitarian aid was resulting in an unprecedented wave of mass starvation and malnutrition.
The United Nations also now reports that more than 1,000 aid seekers have been killed in under two months at sites administered by the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The Israeli military Sunday also issued new evacuation orders for large areas in North and South Gaza, where Palestinians were told that if they refuse they would be targeted.
The orders followed an announcement by Defense Minister Israel Katz to build what he called a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah—a camp where more than 600,000 Palestinians would be corralled with no right to leave.
Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon spoke out against these actions in a post on X on Monday.
"Evacuating all residents from their homes indiscriminately, systematically demolishing houses, and concentrating them into a small area referred to as a 'humanitarian city' for the purpose of voluntary deportation—this is a series of war crimes under international law," said Yaalon.
In Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy described this so-called humanitarian city as "the first Israeli concentration camp." He continued:
Systematic destruction is proceeding throughout the enclave so that there is nowhere to return to other than the concentration camp...
Israel is quietly perpetrating a crime against humanity. Not a house here and a house there, no "operational necessities," but a systematic elimination of any chance of life there, while preparing the infrastructure for concentrating people in a "humanitarian" city...That is the plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
This is no longer a rolling war. One can no longer accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a war with no purpose. There is a purpose to this war, and it's a criminal one.
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