Death Penalty Proposal Targeting Palestinians Advances to Final Knesset Vote
On 24 March 2026, the Knesset National Security Committee voted to pass the Penal Law (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists) Bill (2025), finalizing its preparation for its second and third (final) readings. It could be brought before the full Knesset plenary for a final vote as early as next week.
The legislation seeks to establish a discriminatory legal framework that enables capital punishment specifically targeted at Palestinians, removing essential safeguards and violating an array of obligations under international law.
The bill creates two distinct tracks for the application of the death penalty, targeting both Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT): under Israeli military law, which applies to Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank, the bill introduces a quasi-mandatory death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killings classified as “terrorist acts” under Israeli law, allowing courts to deviate only in unspecified circumstances to be recorded by the presiding court. The bill further seeks to amend the Penal Code to authorize civil courts to impose the death penalty for intentional killing committed with the aim of "negating the existence of the State of Israel." All sentences are to be carried out by hanging. The bill mandates secrecy regarding the identities of those carrying out executions and grants them immunity from personal accountability.
See a full analysis of the bill and its illegality in the following position paper by Adalah, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI): https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Briefing_Paper_Death_Penalty_Bill_26_March_2026.pdf
Throughout the legislative process, Adalah submitted several letters to the chair of the Knesset’s National Security Committee, the attorney general (AG) and the Knesset’s legal advisor, (letters dated 18 November 2025; 13 January 2026; and 23 March 2026) demanding the bill be scrapped as unconstitutional, based on the following arguments:
Violation of the Right to Life: The bill violates the right to life—the most basic and superior human right, anchored in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. In its latest letter Adalah noted that the bill involves “intentional killing, carried out in cold blood, at a time when no danger is posed by the person condemned to death”.
Institutionalized racial discrimination: The bill creates a dual legal system: one for Jewish citizens and another for Palestinians. By targeting acts intended to “negate the existence of the State of Israel,” the law targets Palestinians while excluding Jewish Israelis convicted of nationalistic offenses against Palestinians. This separate legal track based on nationality or origin violates the principle of equality and relies on irrelevant distinctions rooted in racist views, amounting to prohibited racial discrimination.
Grave breach of international law: The bill constitutes a grave breach of international law, specifically violating Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects the right to life. Under General Comment No. 36, states parties are prohibited from introducing the death penalty for offenses that did not carry it at the time of the treaty's ratification or thereafter. Furthermore, the death penalty is increasingly recognized under international norms as a violation of the absolute prohibition against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, often amounting to torture. The bill also directly contradicts Israel’s consistent diplomatic history of supporting UN General Assembly resolutions that call for a global moratorium on executions and the eventual abolition of the death penalty.
Violation of the laws of belligerent occupation: The application of Israeli domestic law to Palestinian residents of the West Bank is a violation of international law. Under Regulation 43 of the Hague Regulations, the Knesset lacks sovereign authority to legislate for the occupied population. By instructing the military commander to prioritize the political and national policy interests of the State of Israel over the needs of the local population, the bill breaches the fundamental legal constraints governing the administration of occupied territory.
Adalah further argues that the stated purpose of the bill—deterrence—is empirically unfounded. Scientific research consistently demonstrates that the death penalty fails to deter violent crime more effectively than life imprisonment. Instead, the legislation appears to be driven by a racist and vengeful agenda.
International Condemnation
The advancement of this legislation has drawn widespread international condemnation from multiple global human rights bodies. The Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights warned on 18 March 2026, that the bill runs counter to global abolitionist trends and carries a serious risk of discriminatory application. Similarly, the European External Action Service (EEAS) stated on 24 March 2026, that approving the bill would represent a "grave step backward" from positions Israel has previously expressed in international forums. These concerns are echoed by United Nations experts, who have emphasized that any form of discrimination in the application of the death penalty stands in direct violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Relevant Documents/ Press Releases:
Adalah's letter, November 2025
Israel Fast-Tracks Death Penalty Bill Targeting Palestinians - Adalah
