On 30 March, Israel passed legislation on imposing the death penalty on a mandatory basis, applied exclusively to Palestinians. The death sentence must be carried out within an accelerated time-frame of 90 days, by hanging.
The law was passed by 62 lawmakers to 48, marking a grim turning point in discriminatory policy and extremism in the Israeli Knesset.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who introduced the bill, had been openly advocating for the death penalty exclusively for Palestinians. For months, Ben-Gvir and his supporters in the Knesset wore golden-coloured noose-shaped pins to symbolize their demand for the death penalty bill.
Ben-Gvir said to the Israeli press in Haifa on April 6, ““As someone who took everything from them, I also want to take their lives. This is right, this is just, this is the truth.”
Death sentence applies to Palestinians only
Israel had once abolished the death penalty for “ordinary crimes”, which includes murder. The re-introduction of the death sentence does not apply to Israelis who have killed Palestinians. If a Jewish Israeli murders a Palestinian, no matter the circumstances, he cannot be executed.
This is because the wording of the law is designed to exclude Jewish Israelis from the punishment. The death penalty is applied for the deliberate killing of a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel.”
As reported by the Times of Israel, this “effectively enshrines capital punishment for Palestinians alone, as it explicitly excludes Israeli citizens or residents, and Palestinians alone are tried in military courts. Israelis are tried in civilian courts.”
The death sentence is applied to Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank for offenses classified as “terrorism related” by Israeli legal standards. It also includes Palestinians who have been arbitrarily held in prisons for years by Israel, without even having been charged, under “administrative detention”.
Palestinian Deaths by Israeli Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank
This reflects a profound inequity, as Israeli settler violence on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is a daily occurrence, more than 6 times a day, and often deadly.
According to the UNRWA, settler violence has spiked with 10 Palestinians killed in this context since the end of February 2026, with March being one of the deadliest months of settler violence ever recorded in the occupied West Bank. The latest death came just days after it was publicly reported that the Israeli security cabinet had approved the establishment of 34 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which remain illegal under international law.
In July 2025, the Palestinian activist who helped make the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land”, Awdah Hathaleen, was shot dead by an hard-line Israeli settler, Yinon Levi, in the Occupied West Bank. Levi was among the 13 Israeli settlers targeted last year by international sanctions for their attacks of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wrote on X: “It is an asymmetric measure that would not apply to Israelis who committed the same crimes. Same crime, different punishment. That is not justice. It is a step closer to apartheid.”
According to Amnesty International, the “discriminatory nature and lack of due process guarantee” of the death penalty for Palestinians in Israel “violate the right to life and protections enshrined in international humanitarian and human rights law, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture.”
“Constitutes a war crime”
According to Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem (the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories): “Israel is reaching a new low in the dehumanization of Palestinians, enshrining their cruel treatment in state law. It already kills Palestinians systematically and faces no demands for accountability. Under the leadership of top ministers, the Israeli system is day by day becoming a system that normalizes the killing and injury of human beings.
UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, says the bill is a “particularly egregious violation of international law” and “would constitute a war crime.
Speaking to the Guardian, Adam Coogle, the deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said: “Israeli officials argue that imposing the death penalty is about security, but in reality it entrenches discrimination and a two-tiered system of justice, both hallmarks of apartheid.
In response to the grave violation of international law that is Israel’s death penalty for Palestinians, and worsening conditions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, countries such as Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia are urging the European Union to suspend its the EU-Israel association agreement.
Italy, earlier this month, had already suspended a defense agreement amounting to millions in military equipment and technology research with Israel.
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