The passage of a new law in Israel that makes the death penalty a default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks has sparked a wave of concern, anger, and fear among the families of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank.
Families and human rights groups say the law, if implemented, could pave the way for death sentences to be issued and carried out without the defendants having a fair trial, especially since many of these cases are heard in Israeli military courts, which critics say have a long history of issuing sweeping convictions and extracting confessions under duress.
The law, passed late Monday, would make the death penalty the main punishment for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, according to Reuters. Although the text of the law formally covers Israeli citizens, because it defines such attacks as actions that “negate the existence of Israel,” critics say it will be applied almost exclusively to Palestinians in practice and is unlikely to include Jewish Israelis.
The law specifically stipulates that the method of execution is “hanging.” Legal experts say the clause was likely included because of concerns that Israeli doctors would refuse to participate in lethal injection executions. The law also generally requires executions to be carried out within ninety days of the verdict and does not provide for any right to request clemency. Although judges can impose life imprisonment instead of death, this is only possible in “special circumstances” and without a clear definition of what those circumstances are.
Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have called the law highly discriminatory and a violation of fundamental principles of international law. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also stated that the law is in conflict with international humanitarian law. Israeli legal experts also believe that the new law will likely be invalidated by the Israeli Supreme Court because it is inconsistent with Israel’s international obligations, including the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The convention, which Israel has ratified, stipulates that those sentenced to death should not be deprived of the right to request clemency and that there must be at least six months between the issuance of the sentence and its execution.
One of the main areas of criticism of the law is the way Palestinian cases are handled in Israeli military courts in the West Bank. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem says the conviction rate in these courts is as high as 96 percent and there is a history of extorting confessions under duress and even torture, claims that Israel denies. But for Palestinian families, this history is enough to make them see the new law not as a legal tool, but as a direct threat to the lives of their children and relatives.
In Ramallah, families of Palestinian prisoners held a protest rally on Tuesday, calling for the law to be repealed. Mayson Shomre, the mother of one of the prisoners, said the news of the law’s passage came as a shock to the prisoners’ families. Her son, Mansour Shomre, 29, is charged with attempted murder of a prisoner. Abdel Fattah al-Haymouni, whose son Ahmed is awaiting trial for his role in a shooting and stabbing attack near Tel Aviv in October 2024, said he now fears his son could face the death penalty if convicted. He also expressed doubts about the possibility of a fair trial and called on human rights groups to pressure the Israeli government to stop the law from being implemented.
According to Raed Abu al-Hummus, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Prisoners Affairs, if the law is implemented, some 45 to 47 Palestinian prisoners currently awaiting sentencing in murder cases could face the death penalty. This figure shows that the concerns are not merely theoretical and that a number of actual prisoners may become the first victims of the law.
Critics also say the new law was passed in a political context that coincides with an escalation in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and growing international criticism of Israel’s performance in the Gaza war. This comes at a time when repeated settler attacks on Palestinians rarely result in indictments in military courts. The Yesh Din watchdog said the last case it recorded in which an Israeli citizen was indicted for killing a Palestinian was an attack in 2018. The comparison, critics say, is a clear sign of the law’s duality.
In Israeli civilian courts, where Palestinians can also be tried, the new law provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment for murders committed with the intent to “negate the existence of Israel,” a definition that human rights lawyers say is designed to effectively exclude Jewish defendants. Debbie Gilde-Hawe of the Civil Rights Association in Israel, which has filed a lawsuit with the Adalah legal group in the Supreme Court against the law, says the law will only apply to Palestinians. Adalah’s Suhyad Bishara also stressed that military courts fundamentally lack basic guarantees of a fair trial, and that the Israeli parliament has no legal authority to legislate for the occupied territory.
However, Israeli experts believe that the likelihood of actual executions in the near future is not very high. Mordechai Kremnitzer, a law professor at the Israel Democracy Institute, considered the law a clear example of a Supreme Court overturn, saying that the judges will likely take a negative stance on the death penalty, as it conflicts with both universal and Jewish morality. Therefore, although the law has been passed, the legal path to prevent its implementation is still open.
However, the law will not apply to the perpetrators of the October 7, 2023 attacks. The Civil Rights Association in Israel has said that the law only applies to criminal acts that occur from now on and is not retroactive. The hundreds of Hamas members who participated in the October 7 attack will also not be covered by the law, as Israel is still developing a separate legal framework for their prosecution.
For Israel’s far-right, the law is a major political victory, fulfilling one of the key 2022 election promises of Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. His party, Jewish Power, argues that the death penalty can deter Palestinians from carrying out deadly attacks or attempting to kidnap Israelis in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But Amnesty International, which monitors death penalty laws in various countries, insists there is no evidence that the death penalty is more effective at reducing crime than life imprisonment. https://www.iran-tribune.com/n/m/113