BREAKING | Israeli Knesset advances death penalty bill targeting Palestinian detainees – The Cradle
BREAKING | Israeli Knesset advances death penalty bill targeting Palestinian detainees
Israel’s Knesset National Security Committee has advanced a bill that would impose a mandatory death sentence on Palestinian detainees convicted of killing Israelis, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir renewed pressure on the coalition and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled his support.
The proposal, which had previously been delayed over concerns it could endanger Israeli captives still held in Gaza, is now being rushed to a first reading in the plenum as early as Wednesday, reflecting the government’s ongoing shift toward harsher, exclusionary measures against Palestinians.
What makes the bill especially punitive is that it is drafted to apply only to those who kill Israeli citizens (often during armed acts of resistance), while explicitly not applying to Israelis who kill Palestinians. Far-right ministers are insisting that courts have no discretion, framing it as “deterrence,” but the result is the consolidation of a two-tier legal system in which Palestinians can be executed by law and Jewish Israelis cannot, even in cases of racially or nationally motivated killings. It also fits into a wider campaign to harden an already inhumane Israeli policy toward Palestinian detainees since 7 October, 2023, using the “security” pretext to expand carceral and capital powers over a population under occupation.
READ FULL ARTICLE: This article originally appeared on The Cradle
