Coalition agreement includes death penalty for terrorists

Otzma Yehudit says Likud has agreed to its demand for a law imposing the death penalty on terrorists, along with a commitment to pass the measure before Israel gets a budget for 2023.

A clause in the agreement cites “the intensification of terror attacks aimed at harming Israel as a Jewish state, and the need to notch a decisive victory against the attackers,” as reasons for imposing a death penalty, Otzma says in a statement.

Capital punishment for terrorists has long been a demand of right-wing lawmakers, but has never found enough support to become law. While Israel has a death penalty on the books, it has only been used twice since the state’s founding.

The statement does not say what kinds of terror offenses will be subject to capital punishment. Israel’s definition of terror has been criticized for encompassing a wide array of actions, including throwing rocks at heavily armed soldiers.