Israel’s Death Penalty Law Targets Palestinians Only

Opuere Odu

April 10, 2026
8:12 am

Israel’s Knesset passed a law on March 11 allowing the death penalty for terrorism offenses with a simple majority vote, triggering international condemnation. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called it incompatible with the right to equality, arguing it targets Palestinians specifically while exempting Israeli Jews from equivalent punishment.

The law cleared three readings in a 55 to 9 vote, enabling district courts to impose capital punishment during wartime without the unanimous panel previously required. It marks Israel’s most significant shift on executions since 1962, when Adolf Eichmann hung for Holocaust crimes. No one has faced the death penalty since.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin hailed the passage as historic justice for victims of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis. The law applies retroactively to perpetrators of those massacres. Polls show 70 percent of Israeli Jews support capital punishment for terrorism, a sentiment that intensified after October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.

A License to Kill Palestinians

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian territories, issued her assessment the day after passage. She described the measure as a license to murder Palestinians with impunity, noting it entrenches what she termed Israel’s apartheid regime. The law creates two standards of justice in the same territory, she argued, with Palestinians facing execution while Israeli Jews charged with similar violence against Palestinians do not.

The criticism goes beyond symbolism. More than 500 Palestinians detained in Gaza could theoretically face the death penalty under this framework. An Israeli military court sentenced a Palestinian to life imprisonment on April 8 for October 7 related attacks, immediately sparking debate about whether future defendants would face execution instead. European diplomats voiced concern in Brussels on April 9, questioning whether the law violates rule of law commitments in the EU Israel Association Agreement.

Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara opposed the bill as unconstitutional, warning it threatens judicial independence. Opposition lawmakers from Yesh Atid and Arab parties voted against it. MK Meirav Ben-Ari from the National Unity party called it a revival of barbarism. The coalition under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed it through anyway, with sponsorship from MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the far right Otzma Yehudit party.

International Law and Equality

The legislation formally titled Amendment No. 7 to the Penal Law amends Section 98A to allow simpler majority verdicts for terrorism cases. It bypasses safeguards in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which restricts capital punishment to the most serious crimes and requires the highest judicial scrutiny. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged Israel to repeal the law between March 12 and 15, citing violations of the right to life.

I have covered Denmark‘s approach to rule of law and equality for years, and the contrast here is striking. Danish criminal law abolished the death penalty in 1933. The European Convention on Human Rights, which Denmark helped draft, prohibits it entirely. Israel’s move distances it further from standards that democracies in Europe consider foundational.

Denmark’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern on March 14 about the law’s compatibility with international obligations. The ministry joined 15 other EU states in a statement urging Israel to uphold equality before the law. Nordic Green Left members in the European Parliament called for a review of trade relations during a March 25 debate, though no concrete sanctions have followed. MEP Karin Karlsbro from Sweden warned the law undermines prospects for a two state solution.

What Happens Next

No executions have occurred, but the policy shift is real. Palestinian rights groups filed complaints with the International Criminal Court on April 9, citing the law as evidence of systematic discrimination. The ICC could theoretically issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials who apply it, though enforcement remains unlikely. Legal experts predict a test case will reach Israel’s Constitutional Court by the third quarter of this year.

The law applies only within Israel proper and during wartime, not to Gaza military courts, which operate under separate frameworks. That technical distinction does little to address the fundamental concern: whether a democratic state can maintain two standards of justice based on ethnicity and claim to uphold equality. Amnesty International labeled it state sanctioned murder. The Israeli Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Jerusalem, published analysis questioning whether the measure violates core democratic principles.

Victims’ families show overwhelming support, with 80 percent backing execution for terrorism according to polling by Israel Hayom. That public sentiment gives the government political cover, but it does not answer the legal and moral questions raised by international observers. Israel now stands virtually alone among developed democracies in expanding rather than limiting capital punishment, and it has done so in a way that reinforces rather than bridges divisions between populations under its control.