ISRAELI LAWMAKERS SEEK DEATH PENALTY FOR ‘HUNDREDS’ OF PALESTINIANS OVER OCT. 7 ATTACKS

Mon 11 May 2026:

Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin has presented a bill to impose the death penalty and conduct public trials for Palestinians involved in the October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, according to Israeli media.

The bill, which will be voted on in the Knesset today, is supported by both the governing and opposition parties.

“Since there is full authority to impose the death penalty, any such penalty, if imposed, will also be executed,” Levin said.

In April, Israel introduced a one-sided bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks.

“We are talking about hundreds of defendants. I am confident that the army has taken the lead in implementing procedures and will know how to do everything required so that we see the trials begin soon,” he added.

Knesset Constitution Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman said the law sends “a clear message to Israel’s enemies that the State of Israel will not stand idly by, will not forget or forgive, and will punish with the most severe penalties provided for in the law, including the death penalty”.

The Israeli parliament’s approval of a legislation that seeks the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks has stoked fears among the Palestinians and drawn condemnation from the international community, dismayed at the further entrenching of what rights groups have long described as Israel’s “system of apartheid”.

The law, which does not apply to Jewish citizens of Israel, was met with jubilation among its backers in the country’s far right.

Rights groups criticised the bill, with Amnesty International in February saying the legislation would make the death penalty “another discriminatory tool in Israel’s system of apartheid”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called the law discriminatory as it would primarily, if not exclusively, be applied to Palestinians.

“Israeli officials argue that the imposing the death penalty is about security, but in reality, it entrenches discrimination and a two-tiered system of justice, both hallmarks of apartheid,” Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The death penalty is irreversible and cruel. Combined with its severe restrictions on appeals and its 90-day execution timeline, this bill aims to kill Palestinian detainees faster and with less scrutiny.”

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How does the law target Palestinians and not Israelis?

By limiting the bulk of the legislation to the military courts that only try Palestinians under occupation.

Under the new legislation, anyone found guilty of the killing of an Israeli citizen within the occupied West Bank will, by default, be sentenced to death by the military courts overseeing the occupied territory.

While the courts do not regularly publish statistics on convictions, in 2010, the court system did concede that, of the Palestinians tried for offences committed in the occupied West Bank, 99.74 percent were found guilty.

In contrast, Israeli settlers, who have killed seven Palestinians in just the weeks following the start of their country’s war on Iran in late February, are tried in civilian courts in Israel. According to an analysis by the UK’s Guardian newspaper in late March, Israel has yet to prosecute any of its citizens for killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade.

Under the new legislation, Israel’s civilian courts are granted an extra degree of leniency in sentencing Israelis found guilty of killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with judges having the option to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment.

Sentences for the military courts trying Palestinians, in contrast, carry an automatic death penalty, with life imprisonment only available under extreme circumstances.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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