From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 10, 2025
Lapid says Otzma Yehudit’s death penalty bill is a ‘political stunt’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says he will not cooperate with Otzma Yehudit’s “political stunts” by voting for its bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis.
Addressing reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting, Lapid says that “there already is a death penalty law for terrorists in the State of Israel” on the books and that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right party is just engaging in “PR tricks.”
Although the death penalty formally exists in Israeli law, it has only ever been used once, in 1962 — in the case of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust.
It is technically allowed in cases of high treason, as well as in certain circumstances under martial law that applies within the IDF and in the West Bank, but currently requires a unanimous decision from a panel of three judges, and has never been implemented.
Otzma Yehudit’s bill stipulates that courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel.
Asked by The Times of Israel if his party would support a similar bill, sponsored by the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, which is being voted on in the plenum today, Lapid replied that he would speak with Yisrael Beytenu, but that the two bills were being presented together and that they would not support anything being advanced by Otzma Yehudit.
The Times of Israel Community.