Today, an Israeli parliamentary committee moved forward with a plan that would make the death sentence for terrorists. This was pushed for by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
According to AFP, the National Security Committee accepted the change to the penal code. It will now be sent to parliament for its first reading.
Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, indicated both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in favor of the proposal.
Ben Gvir claimed that if the measure isn’t voted on by Sunday, his party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) will quit voting with the ruling coalition. This could put the government’s survival in danger.
There are still some acts in Israel that can get you the capital penalty, although the government has become de facto abolitionist since Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator, was put to death in 1962.
The committee’s statement, which contains the bill’s explanatory note, declares that “its purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”
The statement read, “It is proposed that a terrorist convicted of murder motivated by racism or hatred towards the public, and under circumstances where the act was committed with the intent to harm the State of Israel… will be sentenced to the death penalty — mandatory.”
It claimed that the rule was “not optional and without discretion.”
The text also says that a majority of judges can give the death penalty and that the sentence can’t be changed after the decision is made.
Hirsch had earlier said he didn’t want to talk about the law because he was worried about the lives of people kept captive in Gaza.
“Since the hostages are now in Israel, this opposition is no longer relevant,” he stated, according to the statement.
“The prime minister is in favor of this idea.” “I see this law as another weapon in our fight against terrorism and for the release of hostages,” he said.
A member of the Otzma Yehudit party introduced the measure.
Ben Gvir declared today, “There will be no room for discretion in this law.”
“Anyone who is planning to kill someone must know that the only punishment is death.”
On Friday, Ben Gvir tweeted a video of himself standing over a line of Palestinian inmates lying face down on the ground with their hands tied. In the video, he asked for the death penalty.
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