Israeli ministers Sunday advanced a bill that would reinstate the country’s death penalty in a push led by the far-right to counteract terrorism. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted to advance the bill, which has been welcomed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s extremist Otzma Yehudit party.
“We have now passed the death penalty law for… terrorists in the committee of ministers. On this difficult day when two Jews were murdered in a shocking terrorist attack, there is nothing more symbolic than the passing of a death penalty law for terrorists.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Facebook.
He continued that “terrorism wins in attack and not in defense and we will fight with all the tools at our disposal.”
It comes in the wake of violence sparked after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in their car in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. In the aftermath, a Palestinian man was shot dead as Israeli settlers torched homes in Palestinian villages.
The latest deaths are days after Israeli forces launched their deadliest raid on the occupied West Bank in nearly 20 years, which left 11 Palestinians dead in the city of Nablus.
The proposed legislation defines “terrorists” as those who “intentionally or out of indifference cause the death of an Israeli citizen, when the act is carried out from a racist motive or hate to a certain public … and with the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland.”
Experts from the United Nations have expressed grave concerns over the momentum behind legalizing the death penalty in Israel, stipulating that it would lead to human rights breaches.
“The reinstatement of the death penalty is a deeply retrogressive step. More so when, on the face of it, the punishment will apply against minorities living within the State or those who live under the 55-year military occupation and rule,” the UN experts said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben Gvir issued a joint statement to the Israeli Times saying the initial bill stipulates that “courts will be able to impose a death penalty on those who committed a nationalistically motivated murder offense against a citizen of Israel.”
