Overview
- Israel’s Knesset approved the measure Monday in a 62–48 vote, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing it and National Security Minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir driving the push.
- The law directs military courts to sentence West Bank Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis to death by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with no right to appeal or clemency.
- Israeli civilian courts retain discretion to impose life terms, a split that legal experts say will confine executions to Palestinians and effectively exclude Jewish Israelis in comparable cases.
- Minutes after the vote, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the law, while the foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, France and Italy and UN experts condemned it as de facto discriminatory and unlawful.
- The statute takes effect in 30 days and marks a sharp break with past practice, as Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954 and has not carried out a civilian execution since Adolf Eichmann in 1962.