Otzma Yehudit amends bill to ease restrictions on sentencing Palestinian terrorists to death

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party publishes an amended draft of the controversial bill it is pushing to legislate the death penalty for terror convicts.

The legislation, which passed its first reading in November despite widespread opposition from rights groups and others, is being debated in the Knesset National Security Committee before advancing to the Knesset for a second and third reading.

Among the changes made to the bill are that the death penalty will be the mandatory sentence for those who took part in the October 7 massacre, and for “terrorists who reside in the Palestinian Authority” — that is, Palestinians from the West Bank who do not possess Israeli citizenship.

Under the amended proposal, a military court would have the authority to impose the sentence on Palestinian terrorists based on a simple majority of judges rather than a unanimous decision. The legislation would also ease the requirements for judges on the panel while revoking the authority of the IDF regional commander to commute or overturn sentences.

According to the bill’s text, the death penalty will automatically apply to anyone who “intentionally caused the death of an Israeli citizen or resident.”

The legislation also specifies the authorized methods for carrying out the death penalty, including execution by firing squad, electric chair, hanging, or lethal injection.

The purpose of the law is to “strengthen deterrence” and reduce the incentive for abductions and “extortion through deals” to release captured terrorists for Israeli hostages.

Currently, capital punishment is reserved for extremely rare cases and has not been used since the 1962 hanging of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the Nazi architects of the Holocaust.