Israeli coalition advances bill to execute Palestinian prisoners despite concerns

Israel’s National Security Committee voted on Sunday to advance a bill that would allow for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, despite concerns that it would be unlawful and the committee’s legal counsel saying it would be illegal.

The bill was advanced following a vote that saw a majority of four in favour and one against it, paving the way for it to proceed to the first of three rounds of voting at the Knesset before becoming a law.

Idan Ben Yitzhak, an attorney from the committee’s legal counsel, said that the vote is invalid because the committee’s and Knesset’s legal advisors had agreed the vote should not take place during the parliament’s recess period.

He also raised concerns that committee members had not heard the positions of security officials on the matter before voting.

The bill was put forward by Otzma Yehudit’s Limor Son Har-Melech and was supported by a member of Knesset from the Religious Zionism party and another from the Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Reports in Hebrew media stated that far-right Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was asked by people close to the prime minister to postpone the discussion, but he refused to do so.

According to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency Ben-Gvir instead pushed for the bill to be approved.

"This law is a matter of the hour, to create strong deterrence and impose the death penalty on prisoners," he was reported as saying.

Relatives of captives held in Gaza criticised the decision and pleaded for attention to be on those trapped in the enclave, which Israel has been bombing indiscriminately since October 2023.

"Released hostages have told us clearly that every media stunt about the death penalty for terrorists leads to harsher conditions and violence against the hostages," the wife of one captive wrote on X.

"Ben-Gvir knows this. But Ben-Gvir wanted to be on TV today. In a proper country, the prime minister would have fired Ben-Gvir this morning," Lishi Miran Lavi, wife of Omri Miran continued.

Ben-Gvir in 2023 also proposed a law which would allow for the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners "convicted of killing Israelis", which the Knesset later issued a preliminary approval of.

The legislation states that the death penalty can be imposed on anyone who intentionally or negligently cases the death of an Israel citizen, out of racial or ideological hatred or with the arm of harming Israel.

However, the bill has been met with fierce criticism.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel issued a statement saying: "It is no coincidence that most democratic countries have abolished the death penalty, and certainly there is no democracy where it has been used in a discriminatory manner to control a specific ethnic minority – especially in a way that denies judges any discretion."

"Adopting the bill at this time will only further inflame the cycle of cruelty and war and will directly endanger the lives of Israeli hostages and captives, now and in the future," they added.