UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Jan. 2 urged the Israeli government to abandon proposed legislation that would mandate death sentences exclusively for Palestinians in specific cases—for crimes committed both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Türk stated that the legislation is "inconsistent with Israel's obligations" under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR). He also raised concerns over the "introduction of mandatory death sentences, which leave no discretion to the courts, and violate the right to life."

The rights chief asserted that Israel has frequently violated the fair trial protections enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention for Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza, adding that this "amounts to a war crime."

Finally, Türk criticized the legislation's "effect of applying the death penalty retroactively to those convicted of killings related to the horrific attacks on 7 October 2023, in violation of the principle of legality enshrined in international law." Article 6(2) of the ICCPR states that a death sentence may be imposed only "in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime."

On Nov. 10, the Knesset plenum approved in its first reading Penal Law Bill (Amendment No. 159) (Death Penalty for Terrorists) 2025, sponsored by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech. It includes a proposed amendment to the military law governing the occupied West Bank that would require military courts to impose mandatory death sentences for all convictions for intentional killing in the territory. Additionally, the legislation would amend the Israeli Penal Law to introduce the death penalty for the intentional killing of Israelis in an "act of terror." 

An Israel Prison Service guard is to administer the death penalty through gunshot, electric chair, hanging or lethal injection. This last method especially is thought by many scholars to violate international prohibitions on the use of torture.

Despite Israel's 1991 ratification of the UN Convention against Torture, the nation has not yet codified a domestic statute that defines or criminalizes torture. 

From JURIST, Jan. 3. Used with permission.

Note: Lawmakers from the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party wore noose-shaped lapel pins during a Dec. 8 committee meeting on the bill. The golden-colored pins were consciously reminiscent of the yellow ribbons worn by many Israeli politicians and officials to show solidarity with hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The nooses were meant to symbolize the lawmakers' "commitment to the demand for the death penalty for terrorists" and send "a clear message that terrorists are deserving of death," National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's office said in a statement.

Ben Gvir heads Otzma Yehudit, which is leading the effort to pass the bill. Currently, capital punishment in Israel is reserved for extremely rare cases, and has only been used a single time in the country’s history: the 1962 hanging of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann. (ToI)