Tel Aviv, March 31 – Israel's parliament has passed a controversial law that makes hanging the default punishment for Palestinians convicted in military courts of carrying out deadly attacks, fulfilling a key demand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right allies.
The legislation, passed on Monday (local time), has drawn sharp international criticism, with opponents describing it as discriminatory and unconstitutional. Critics argue that the law creates a differential legal framework based on identity and raises serious human rights concerns.
Under the new law, the death penalty would apply to Israelis convicted of murder only if the act was committed with the intent of "ending Israel's existence," a clause that critics say effectively ensures that the punishment will disproportionately target Palestinians while excluding Jewish Israelis accused of similar offenses.
The law also mandates that executions be carried out within 90 days of sentencing, allowing only limited grounds for delay and providing no provision for clemency.
Courts retain the option to impose life imprisonment instead, but only under undefined "special circumstances."
Israel had abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only execution carried out following a civilian trial was that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962, a key figure involved in the Holocaust.
Although military courts in the occupied West Bank already had the authority to award death sentences to Palestinian convicts, such a punishment had never been implemented.
The legislation was strongly backed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who drew attention ahead of the vote by wearing lapel pins shaped like a noose.
After the bill was approved, various opposition parties, such as Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, the Arab-majority Hadash–Ta'al, and the left-leaning Democrats party, alongside multiple human rights organizations, declared their intention to challenge the law in the High Court of Justice.
"This is an immoral law that contradicts the foundational values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and the provisions of international law that Israel has undertaken to uphold," said Gilad Kariv, a member of the Knesset National Security Committee and one of the law's strongest critics, as quoted by the Times of Israel.