The Knesset passed a controversial law on Monday allowing courts to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists found guilty of murder. 

While Israel already allowed the death penalty for genocide and crimes against humanity, it had not been invoked since the execution of senior Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1962. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party proposed the new law in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks with an aim to have terrorists sentenced to death, and conditioned the party’s support for the state budget, which the Knesset approved earlier Monday, on passage of the bill.

The law applies in military courts to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank — meaning, in the vast majority of cases, Palestinians. 

In civilian courts, the law permits applying the death penalty to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — language which would also likely exclude Jewish assailants.

The law further states that the government cannot free or exchange prisoners sentenced to death. Israel released around 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners last fall in exchange for hostages held in Gaza, including about 250 prisoners who were serving life sentences for carrying out deadly terror attacks.

The legislation passed along coalition lines, with 62 in favor and 48 opposed.

Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Zvika Fogel argued from the Knesset podium that “the State of Israel is dealing with a reality of evil and hatred that is unmatched around the world. Our enemies do not want a border, compromise or shared future. Rather, [they seek] to destroy, harm, sow fear and undermine our existence here. In such a reality, it is our clear responsibility to defend the citizens of Israel not with words or hopes, but with action.” 

“This bill is not about revenge or rage, but the state’s responsibility towards its citizens and its leadership towards human life. … The message is clear, whoever chooses the path of terror and raises a hand against Israeli citizens … should know that it has a clear and irreversible price,” Fogel added.

The new law is also much broader than legislation making its way through the Knesset to prosecute perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attacks in a special military tribunal, which could also result in their being sentenced to death.

Yulia Malinovsky, from the opposition Israel Beytenu party and one of the cosponsors of the bill to prosecute Oct. 7 perpetrators, said that “everyone in the coalition understands that Otzma Yehudit’s bill cannot be implemented and will be struck down by the High Court of Justice, but they are all afraid of Ben-Gvir. They tell me so themselves.”

“I am in favor of the death penalty for terrorists,” she added, “but… even if [the law] passes and is not canceled, terrorists will only die of old age.”

Gilad Kariv of the Labor Party plans to petition the High Court against the law, along with Israeli human rights organizations.

During the debate, Kariv said that the law is “not moral, not Jewish and not democratic, nor is it helpful to security.” According to Kariv, none of the defense officials or experts that appeared before the Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee meetings to discuss the bill said that it would serve as a deterrent against terrorism.

Some lawmakers, like Hadash-Ta’al’s Aida Touma-Sliman, argued that the bill is discriminatory against Arabs, comparing it to apartheid South Africa and the Jim Crow South: “First, we look at the nationality of the victim and the nationality of the murderer, and then we decide.” 

However, Touma-Sliman added, she would still oppose the law if it were applied more broadly to Israelis, because she opposes the death penalty — “even against terrorist settlers.”

The Foreign Ministers of Germany, France, Italy and the U.K. released a joint statement expressing “deep concern” about the bill on Sunday.

“The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles,” they stated. “The death penalty is an inhumane and degrading form of punishment without any deterring effect. This is why we oppose the death penalty, whatever the circumstances around the world. The rejection of the death penalty is a fundamental value that unites us. We urge the Israeli decision makers in Knesset and Government to abandon these plans.”

The debate ahead of the final votes on the death penalty law took close to 10 hours, and was not held in the plenum; rather it took place in an auditorium that is fortified in case of a missile attack from Iran.