Knesset committee to vote on advancing death penalty bill to final two readings next week

The Knesset National Security Committee will hold a final vote tomorrow on advancing the coalition’s controversial death penalty for terrorists bill to the final two readings needed for it to pass into law, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party announces.

Ben Gvir will attend the committee vote on the legislation, which would mandate the death penalty for terror convicts and is sponsored by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech.

Haaretz reported on Sunday that the committee is hoping to send the bill to the plenum as early as next week.

The bill has been subjected to numerous objections and proposed amendments from opposition lawmakers and the committee’s legal adviser, who have argued that the bill is unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Significant changes were made last week to “soften” the bill, following pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which argued that the draft was harsher than US capital punishment standards and could expose Israel to diplomatic and legal scrutiny abroad.

Those revisions removed a clause mandating the death penalty without judicial discretion, allowing judges the option to choose between capital punishment and life imprisonment. Another change removed the requirement for trials to take place in military courts, permitting trials in civilian courts. And a third dropped language defining terror victims as “Israeli citizens,” a clause that would have excluded Palestinian victims, in a bid to avoid accusations of discrimination.