Origine +972 Magazine

« Ils nous tirent déjà dessus sans raison. Maintenant, ils ont instauré la peine de mort. »
Under Israel’s new law, only Palestinians will face capital punishment. Up next is a tribunal to execute those convicted of participating in the Oct. 7 attacks.
By Jared Hillel March 31, 2026
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during the vote to pass the death penalty law in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 30, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during the vote to pass the death penalty law in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 30, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
In the spring of 2023, Ammar was arrested for the seventh time in his life. The 42-year-old Palestinian father of two had been working at a canteen in Al-Aroub refugee camp, just outside Hebron, where he had lived his entire life. Ammar’s first arrest came at age 14, when a soldier grabbed him by his backpack while he was on his way home from school and detained him for allegedly throwing stones. He spent five and a half months behind bars — the beginning of a series of detentions that has plagued him ever since.

During his most recent arrest, Ammar was accused of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was held in solitary confinement in a cold, windowless cell and interrogated for 50 days. Israeli authorities presented no evidence against him, and he never confessed to the charge. Nonetheless, he was only released after his lawyer accepted a plea deal that included 30 months in prison and a NIS 12,000 fine. By the time the deal was struck, Ammar had already been incarcerated for 28 months, most of it at the notorious Ofer Prison.

Since returning to his home in Al-Aroub at the end of September, Ammar has struggled with flashbacks and sleepless nights. The daily beatings and starvation during his last stint, he told +972, is something he had never experienced before in Israeli jail. He now sees a psychologist on a weekly basis, as well as a physiotherapist for chronic back pain. Otherwise, he rarely leaves the house.

Subscribe to The Landline
+972’s weekly newsletter
Your@mail.here
Sign up
But now, the familiar cycle of arrest and release has taken on a far darker edge. Since his release, soldiers have raided Ammar’s home, detaining him twice. Under a system where Palestinians in the West Bank face near-total conviction rates and are regularly imprisoned without charge, he now fears that the next arrest could be his last.

On March 30, the Knesset crossed a new threshold, passing a death penalty law aimed squarely at Palestinians. For the occupied West Bank, the law mandates Israeli military courts to impose the death sentence on anyone convicted of killing an Israeli citizen or resident “with the intent of rejecting the existence of the State of Israel,” which means that in practice, only Palestinians will be targeted.

Under the law, military courts can only bypass this mandate and impose a life sentence if it finds “special reasons” or under “special circumstances.” An earlier version of the bill allowed for no exceptions to capital punishment, but was altered after the military warned that it violated international law, risking the arrest of commanders abroad.

Israel Prison Service officers prepare Palestinian prisoners for release as part of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, at Kteziot Prison, southern Israel, February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel Prison Service officers prepare Palestinian prisoners for release as part of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, at Ketziot Prison, southern Israel, February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
For Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian lawmaker from the Hadash party and a vocal critic of the law, the new “softened” version doesn’t make it any less dangerous. “The first option is still capital punishment,” she explained in an interview with +972. “And in the environment that exists today, I’m not sure any judge will have the courage to decide differently.”

The law also expands penal law to facilitate the use of the death penalty in civilian courts, which handle cases involving Israeli citizens and residents of occupied East Jerusalem. At present, capital punishment in Israeli civilian law is reserved for crimes against humanity and treason, meaning no Palestinian has ever been put to death by an Israeli civilian court.

While the prospect of legally sanctioned executions may appear especially stark, it represents a logical extension of an already lethal carceral system. According to a November 2025 report by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, at least 98 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 7 as a result of torture, medical neglect, and forced starvation — dozens of whom were classified as civilians by Israel’s own intelligence.

“We are seeing extrajudicial killings occur at alarming rates, with the judicial system largely sanctioning such practices,” explained Miriam Azem, international advocacy coordinator at the Haifa-based legal center Adalah. Over the past two years, she added, the Knesset has passed more than 30 laws that “reinforce this system of ethno-national targeting.” But the death penalty law represents “one of the most extreme and dangerous additions, further entrenching an apartheid system that devalues Palestinian lives.”

No longer ‘a bridge too far’
Technically, Israeli military courts already maintained the authority to impose capital punishment before this bill was passed, but a longstanding reluctance to enforce it has meant no executions have been carried out since Adolf Eichmann was hanged in 1962. For much of Israel’s history, according to Yuval Shany, Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), even as the state pursued a counterterrorism policy that was “largely out of sync with liberal values,” the political establishment “still regarded itself at some level as part of the Western liberal world, and the death penalty was viewed as a bridge too far.”

Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death by an Israeli court. (GPO/Public domain)
Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death by an Israeli court. (GPO/Public domain)
The new legislation also removes multiple legal safeguards, including the requirement that only a unanimous decision by a three-panel judge can impose the death penalty — now allowing for a simple two-thirds majority to do so. It also permits courts to impose capital punishment without the previous burden of an explicit request from prosecutors, and mandates that executions be carried out within 90 days. For Palestinians under Israeli occupation, the law stipulates that avenues for pardon or appeal would be closed, restrictions that would not apply to individuals tried within Israel.

The proposed method of execution was revised in November, after the Israel Medical Association objected to participating in the process and stated it would not administer lethal injections. Undeterred, and possibly even emboldened by this potential roadblock, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir started sporting a noose-shaped lapel pin to meetings. On Jan. 13, he presented a revised draft that mandates death by hanging — a requirement that has also now become law.

The introduction of a mandatory death penalty in Israel not only violates international law, but according to Ajith Sunghay, head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also risks “exacerbating existing discriminatory administration of justice, which allows almost complete impunity for violence perpetrated by Israelis against Palestinians while Palestinians are routinely convicted, often following egregiously unfair trials.”

Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, noted in a conversation with +972 that many of the MKs backing the legislation have openly stated its true intention. “Some of the drafters explained that there’s no such thing as Jewish terrorism,” Bashi said, “making it super clear that this is a death penalty for Palestinians only.”

One of the lawmakers Bashi referred to is MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who when asked whether the law would apply to Jewish attackers, denied the existence of Jewish terrorism, tout court. Similar views have been expressed by multiple government lawmakers, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, who reportedly described settler attacks not as “terrorism” but as a “disturbance of public order.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and MK Limor Son Har-Melech arrive for a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, September 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and MK Limor Son Har-Melech arrive for a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, September 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Although the bill’s progress was slowed by extensive debate, preparations for its implementation were already underway in recent months. According to a report by Israel’s Channel 13 at the beginning of February, a secluded facility is being designated as a potential execution site. With the proposed method of hanging, three prison officers would need to activate the release switch simultaneously, a mechanism apparently intended to diffuse individual culpability. An Israeli delegation was also expected to visit an unnamed Asian country to study capital punishment systems presently in use.

For Palestinians in the West Bank who have firsthand experience with the military court system, this new law is a terrifying development. “They already shoot you for no reason and your life does not matter. Now, they will also have the death penalty,” Ammar told +972. The proposed changes, he added, could “put both children and adults at risk.” Indeed, nowhere in the legislation are minors explicitly excluded.

Retroactive death sentences for October 7
Despite Israel’s past reluctance to implement the death penalty, public backing for capital punishment has predated the current legislative push. As early as 2017, an IDI poll found that nearly 70 percent of Israelis supported the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis. Calls from right-wing politicians to implement such measures have also steadily intensified over the past decade. In 2015, for example, then-freshman MK Bezalel Smotrich volunteered that he would personally carry out the executions.

In Shany’s view, however, the October 7 attacks marked a turning point in Israeli public discourse. While a shrinking liberal constituency continues to oppose the death penalty, he noted “for a large swath of the Israeli public, there is this equivalence between October 7 and Nazi war crimes,” suggesting that there is broad public support for “the possibility that [capital punishment] would be extended to the perpetrators.”

Indeed, this too may become a reality : A parallel legislative effort in the Knesset seeks to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of participating in the October 7 attacks. However, since Israel’s “disengagement” in 2005, Palestinians from Gaza have mainly faced civilian courts, as the enclave is no longer subject to the military jurisdiction that continues to govern the West Bank. At present, murder is not a capital offense in civilian courts, and Israeli law bars the retroactive application of the death penalty.

Given this limitation, deliberations began in the Knesset shortly after Hamas’ attacks over whether to establish a special tribunal to prosecute those who took part. In January 2024, Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman addressed the issue publicly, telling media outlets that “the Justice Ministry already understands that we need an amendment to the law, because current criminal law does not fit the events of October 7.”

MK Simcha Rothman and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hold a joint press conference on the judicial overhaul at the Knesset, Jerusalem, March 21, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
MK Simcha Rothman and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hold a joint press conference on the judicial overhaul at the Knesset, Jerusalem, March 21, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Last week, the Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee advanced a bill submitted by Rothman to establish a special military tribunal, which would have the capacity to impose the death penalty on those convicted under Israel’s 1950 Law for the Prevention of Genocide. Already approved by the Attorney General’s Office as the legal framework for prosecuting suspects, the bill is currently heading to the Knesset plenum for a final vote, which could take place at the beginning of the summer session in May.

The bill further states that suspects would be barred from future prisoner-exchange deals, and court-appointed defense attorneys would be funded through Palestinian Authority tax revenues withheld by Israel. Trials would be broadcast live, with visual and audio documentation preserved in the state archives.

Legal experts and rights groups have warned that a tribunal empowered to impose retroactive death sentences would violate international law. Miriam Azem of Adalah told +972 that the proposed law “lacks safeguards for a fair trial, including prohibition on torture and the exclusion of coerced evidence.” Given documented abuses against Palestinian detainees, she added, “any death sentence would likely be arbitrary, unlawful, and could amount to a war crime under the Rome Statute.”

Similar concerns have been raised at the United Nations. “These two bills will exacerbate our existing concerns,” Sunghay of the OHCHR said. “In such a stark absence of fair trials, the death penalty is a particularly heinous violation of the right to life.”

A ‘culture of death and dehumanization’
In the lead-up to the final vote on the death penalty bill, a small number of human rights groups voiced moral objections, in what would ultimately become a failed bid to prevent the law’s passage.

Last month, some 1,200 Israeli public figures — including Nobel Prize laureates, former senior army officials, lawmakers, and retired Supreme Court justices — signed a petition opposing the proposed legislation. For its part, the Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights has repeatedly argued against the bill in Knesset committee discussions from a Jewish ethical perspective, and has even engaged in direct action such as plastering Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem with posters denouncing the proposal.

Pressure from within the Israeli political establishment also began to mount in February, which ultimately led to the “softened” version of the bill. Yet much of the opposition was based on fears of international repercussions, rather than the policy’s impact on Palestinians.

Activists protest against the death penalty law outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 31, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Activists protest against the death penalty law outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 31, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Reports emerged that the potential for international backlash prompted unease among some Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite supporting the expanded use of capital punishment for several years, Netanyahu pushed to soften the bill’s language, warning of a diplomatic fallout.

Similar apprehensions were raised by other security bodies, including the National Security Council, the Shin Bet, and the Foreign Ministry, which expressed reservations about the discriminatory language in earlier versions that only defined terror victims as “Israeli citizens,” and worried about the possibility of facing legal consequences abroad.

In a tense National Security Committee meeting in January, a few MKs also spoke out against the proposed bill. Gilad Kariv, from the Labor Party, warned that the measure was “a political and populist move, not one that is designed to increase the efficiency of combating terrorism.”

Ben Gvir’s response was blunt. Addressing Kariv directly, he said : “You’re the minority and we’re the majority.” In many respects, Ben Gvir’s assessment reflects the broader political climate, in which dissenting voices have been marginalized. Last week, he clashed with Yesh Atid MK Yasmin Fridman, telling her “this law will pass, and your [terrorist] friends will be killed.”

When the bill passed by a vote of 62-48, those leading the charge reacted euphorically, as expected. Ben Gvir brandished a bottle of champagne and toasted with fellow MKs and aides. Limor Son Har-Melech appeared to be on the verge of tears as she read the law’s passage, shouting, “Am Israel Chai !”

In the immediate aftermath of the bill’s passage, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition to the High Court of Justice, demanding an annulment of the law. ACRI’s petition argued that the Knesset does not have the jurisdiction to legislate for the West Bank, and that the law, which violates the right to life, is unconstitutional.

Several human rights groups and MKs, including Adalah and Touma-Suleiman, also filed a separate petition to the Supreme Court, arguing that the law “adopts an apartheid-like approach to the fundamental right to life.”

In an email to +972, Adalah’s legal director, Dr. Suhad Bashara, was direct in her summation. “This law institutionalizes the state-sanctioned, cold-blooded killing of individuals who pose no imminent threat,” adding that the law violates the “fundamental principle of equality and prohibition on racial discrimination.”

Most read on +972
A report about the shooting at the Israeli Embassy in Paraguay, in the local newspaper La Tarde, May 4, 1970.
The Paraguay Scheme : Israel’s secret plan to deport Gazans in the ‘70s
Anti-missile batteries fire interceptors toward incoming ballistic missiles launched from Iran, as seen over Tel Aviv, March 7, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The Iron Dome is intercepting our chances of a normal future
Israeli settlers fly an Israeli flag on the house of Ahed Khatib, inside Area B near Aqarba, in the West Bank, February 2026. (Oren Ziv)
‘Erasing the lines’ : How settler outposts are seizing new regions of the West Bank
For Touma-Suleiman, who fought against the bill since it was first introduced in November, its passage reflects the transformation in society, which “accepts that it’s possible for Israel to exist as an apartheid regime, with different laws for different national groups.”

The final vote also laid bare how many politicians were willing to align with Ben Gvir and Smotrich. “More and more people are willing to join this culture of death and dehumanization,” Touma-Suleiman added. “They are running away from discussing the real problem : how the continued occupation is creating these catastrophes.”

death penalty
Palestinian prisoners
Itamar Ben Gvir
Otzma Yehudit
Israeli military courts
Kahanism
far-right
Apartheid
Jared Hillel is a journalist based in Jerusalem. He has previously worked with Reuters in London, as well as CBC and Radio-Canada.

If you believe these stories are important, become a +972 member today to make sure we can keep telling them.

For those who care deeply about the people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, this is your opportunity to move from despair into action.

The effects of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are still being felt : much of the Strip lies in ruins, millions remain displaced with nowhere to return to, tens of thousands have been killed, and many more are believed to be buried beneath the rubble.

In the West Bank, the Israeli army has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps, while state-sponsored settler violence is wiping rural communities off the map on a weekly basis. At the same time, Israel’s ever-escalating regional aggression threatens to drag the entire Middle East into the inferno.

We are here on the ground — from Gaza to Tel Aviv to Masafer Yatta — exposing the crimes, reporting the horrors, and amplifying the voices of those resisting injustice to an audience of millions around the world. If there was ever a time the world needed +972 Magazine, it is now.

As a binational team based in Israel-Palestine, we are best placed to cover this pivotal moment in a way that no other outlet can — but we need your help to do it. Join us as a member to become part of our mission, and support independent journalism that really makes a difference.

BECOME A +972 MEMBER TODAY
More About death penalty
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visits a prison in central Israel, where suspected Hamas and Hezbollah militants are held, January 8, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Why the death penalty would cement the Israeli radical right’s ascendancy
A bill to legalize the execution of Palestinians represents an effort to institutionalize revenge and erase all remaining limits on state violence.
By Ron Dudai November 26, 2025
The Israeli and the American flags are screened on the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, on October 28, 2018, in solidarity with the victims who were killed in a mass shooting at Pittsburgh synagogue. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Death penalty for Pittsburgh terrorist is wrong
Sentencing Robert Bowers to death isn’t likely to honor the victims. What’s worse, it might build up the case for capital punishment for terrorists in Israel. Prosecutors are reportedly planning to seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, suspected of murdering 11 Jews in a mass shooting attack as they celebrated a bris at their…
By Dahlia Scheindlin November 2, 2018