Concerned over Israel’s international standing, Netanyahu said working to amend death penalty bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly working to alter the wording of a controversial bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists, over fears about Israel’s international standing.

Citing unnamed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office, Ynet reports that Netanyahu contacted National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose far-right Otzma Yehudit party is spearheading the legislation, and expressed his opposition to the bill’s current wording.

He reportedly communicated to Ben Gvir that he would not allow the coalition to pass a more severe capital punishment law than that of the United States.

The premier is said to have enlisted Likud MK Eli Dallal to submit a reservation to the bill on his behalf, as it is fast-tracked through the Knesset National Security Committee before its second and third plenary votes.

Dallal’s reservation — one of around one thousand reservations submitted against the bill — opposes a clause that mandates the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists convicted of murder. Legal experts have warned that such a provision, which would force courts to sentence certain convicts to death, hamstrings judicial discretion.

The Likud lawmaker is also demanding that the legislation include a clause granting a death row convict the right to appeal for a reduction in his sentence. At the moment, the bill only allows for an appeal of the conviction, not the sentencing itself.