Israel Fast-Tracks Death Penalty Bill Targeting Palestinians

Jerusalem, 19 January 2026 - Israel’s Knesset is fast-tracking one of the most extreme legislative proposals in its history: a bill that would introduce the death penalty in a manner that overwhelmingly targets Palestinians. Human rights organizations warn that the legislation will lead to racialized capital punishment.

The Penal Law (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists), 2025, is being rushed through three consecutive hearings this week in the Knesset’s National Security Committee, one of which has already concluded—an accelerated process that paves the way for final votes in the coming weeks.

The bill creates a dual-track death penalty regime. In military courts - which have jurisdiction exclusively over Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory - judges would be required to impose a mandatory death sentence for intentional killing, by simple majority and even where the prosecution did not seek it. Sentences would not be commutable and would have to be carried out within 90 days, while core procedural safeguards are stripped away. In parallel, Israeli civil courts would be empowered to impose the death penalty for crimes against Israeli citizens or residents only, reinforcing a deeply unequal legal system in which capital punishment is directed at Palestinians.

The bill also creates a secretive and unaccountable execution regime. All death sentences would be carried out by hanging, with the execution process shielded from public scrutiny: those carrying out the sentences would have their identities concealed, information classified, and be exempted from personal liability. Death row prisoners would face heightened isolation, drastically restricted access to legal counsel, and be deprived of effective oversight. The bill further allows executions to proceed even without designated officials or any family member of the prisoner present, and extends these execution rules to existing offenses that carry the death penalty.

The bill thus violates the right to life and the absolute prohibition on torture and ill-treatment, as well as international humanitarian law prohibitions. The imposition of the death penalty only on Palestinians in the oPT may also amount to a war crime.

Introduced by the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party on 13 January 2026, the bill has already passed its first reading and now enjoys broad political support, including from one opposition party, and so-far silent, fully complicit “centralist” parties Yesh Atid (headed by MK Yair Lapid) and HaMahaneh ha’Mamlachti (head: MK Benny Gantz). As a result, the bill’s passage is a real and imminent possibility.

If enacted, the law would mark a sharp break from Israel’s longstanding policy of de facto abolition of the death penalty and, in the context of escalating human rights violations since 7 October 2023, would constitute a grave, racially targeted threat to Palestinian lives.

The undersigned organizations are urging Israeli authorities and international partners to act swiftly to oppose the bill.

See briefing paper from the undersigned organizations for further details, here.