Israeli parliament advances death penalty bill backed by Ben-Gvir

The Israeli parliament has advanced a bill that would mandate the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli citizens, with some lawmakers believing it would prevent future prisoner-release deals.

In a vote held late on Monday — the first of four needed for the measure to become law — the bill passed with 39 in favour and 16 against, out of 120 lawmakers.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had called on all political factions to back the bill, which he has said was aimed at creating deterrence against “Arab terrorism”.

“This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence,” he said in a statement after the initial vote. “Once the law is finally passed — terrorists will be released only to hell.”

Some parties boycotted Monday’s vote

The bill will now move to a parliamentary committee for further debate before a second and third vote. It is not guaranteed that it will become law, with several key political parties having boycotted Monday’s initial vote.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid was quoted by Israeli media as saying that he would not vote in favour of the bill.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation condemned the vote, with Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh calling the draft law “a political, legal, and humanitarian crime”. The vote was also criticised by Hamas.

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, and the only person ever executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.

Ben-Gvir has argued that imposing the death penalty would deter anyone considering an attack similar to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza. A tenuous ceasefire was agreed last month that included the release of 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza, plus the remains of deceased ones, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Prisoner release deals

Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since October 2023 in exchange for the release of the hostages that were being held by Palestinian fighters.

Most of the hostages have been released except for the remains of three deceased Israelis and one foreigner.

Tzvika Foghel, a member of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and chair of the parliamentary national security committee, where the bill will now be debated, said imposing the death penalty would mean no more prisoner deals.

Palestinians who have been released have included some convicted of serious crimes, including murder. Many had not been convicted of any crime.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza. Far-right Israeli politicians such as Ben-Gvir have, during the fighting in Gaza, opposed the release of Palestinians who were involved in the killings of Israelis.

Ben-Gvir handed out sweets to fellow lawmakers after the initial vote passed. In Gaza, some Palestinians had handed out sweets to the public after the October 2023 attack.