Death penalty for Palestinian prisoners accused of terrorism: five minutes to understand the new Israeli law

It is a law that divides Israeli society. The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, adopted a law on Monday March 30 aimed at establishing “the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists”. Who does it apply to? Why is it so controversial? And how did foreign countries react? Decryption.

Who will be affected by this law?

The general framework of the law provides that any person “who intentionally causes the death of a (other) with the aim of harming an Israeli citizen or resident, with the intention of bringing to an end the existence of the State of Israel, shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.”

But for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the text provides that the death penalty is the default sanction if the homicide is qualified as an act of terrorism by Israeli military justice.

According to the new law, the death penalty would be applicable within 90 days after the final conviction, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.

The death penalty exists in Israel, but has only been used twice: in 1948, shortly after the establishment of the state, against an army captain accused of high treason, and in 1962, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.

Why is she denounced?

This law constitutes “a crime and a dangerous escalation” in Israeli policies, criticized the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on

With this new law, the death penalty could apply to a Palestinian who kills an Israeli, but in no case to an Israeli who kills a Palestinian.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which announced that it had filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, describes the law as “unconstitutional, discriminatory in nature and, for Palestinians in the West Bank, adopted without legal basis”.

Parliament “does not have the power to legislate for the West Bank” where Israel “exercises no sovereignty”, she argues.

Much of this territory is under Israeli military control. More than 500,000 Israelis already live in this territory among three million Palestinians, in “settlement” colonies, illegal under international law.

If the colonization of the West Bank has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967, it has accelerated under the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. In mid-February, the Israeli coalition government adopted new measures aimed at facilitating the annexation of land by the state, then the settlers.

How was the text received in Israel and abroad?

The new Israeli law has been criticized from all sides, in Israel and abroad, by allies and enemies alike. Hamas considered that the vote on the law demonstrated “the bloodthirsty nature of the occupation (Israel), and its approach based on murder and terrorism.

During the debate preceding the vote, Ram Ben Barak, opposition MP and former deputy director of Mossad (Israeli’s external secret service), expressed his indignation at the text, which testifies to a form of defeat against Hamas, to the extent that Israel would move away from its own “values” and would adopt, in his eyes, similar behaviors, marked by “hatred” and “revenge”.

For Miriam Azem, international advocacy coordinator for Adalah, an Israeli NGO defending the rights of the Arab minority, this law “is part of the continuity and escalation of mistreatment and torture inflicted on Palestinians”.

In Europe, Berlin, Paris, Rome and London expressed in a joint statement on Sunday their “deep concern” regarding this text which “risks calling into question Israel’s commitments to democratic principles”.