Skip to main content

Israel: Likud ministers split over death penalty for terrorists bill

Bill is due to be put before the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday

A bill introducing the death penalty for terrorists who murder Israelis, which has been put forth by the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, has led to divisions within Israel's ruling Likud party, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The bill, which was submitted by MK Sharon Gal is due to be put before the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday.

Gal posted on his Facebook and Twitter page a picture in which he is holding up a sign saying "I too support the death penalty for terrorists," calling on his supporters to follow his lead and upload similar pictures.

"The bill will be debated in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, and your support is critical," Gal wrote. "How can you help? Take a picture of yourself with the line, 'I also support the death penalty for terrorists.' Upload it here on and your own pages, in order to flood the Web and influence the ministers."

"We must change the reality and eradicate terrorism," Gal said in his post, adding that "the death penalty will increase Israel's deterrence. It is moral to legislate it in order to protect the lives of our citizens."

According to The Jerusalem Post, Science, Technology and Space Minister Danny Danon, who is also a member of the committee, was the only minister to say he would support the bill. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who is also the committee's interim chairman, intends to vote against the bill.

Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett also announced his support for the bill, saying "a murderous terrorist, like the murderers of the Fogels [five family members who were stabbed to death at their Itamar home in 2011], should know that his life ends when he ends life."

"It's moral and it's right," he wrote on his Facebook page, calling on opposition leader and head of the Zionist Union party Isaac Herzog and leader of the Yesh Atid partyYair Lapid to support the bill, "there is no difference between coalition and opposition on these issues," Bennett added.

In April former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and head of Yisrael Beitenu, said that the death penalty for terrorists was something his party would push for during his party's next tenure in the Knesset.

The death penalty already exists in Israel, for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and treason during times of war.

Adolf Eichmann is the only one to have been sentenced to death in Israel. He was executed in 1962.

Source: i24news.tv, June 10, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Oklahoma Sets November Execution Date for Air Force Veteran Jim Pavatt Amid Claims of Wrongful Conviction

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has scheduled the execution of Air Force veteran and longtime death row prisoner Jim Pavatt for Nov. 12, as his attorneys continue to challenge his conviction and contend that prosecutors relied on false arguments, disputed forensic evidence and an alleged confession they later described as bogus. Pavatt, who served nearly 22 years in the Air Force and rose to the rank of master sergeant, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 killing of Rob Andrew in Oklahoma City. His execution is scheduled for the day after Veterans Day.

Indiana high court sets Nov. 5 execution date for convicted child killer

The court’s decision came a little more than two months after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the justices to schedule Weisheit’s execution. State attorneys argued Weisheit had exhausted his state and federal appeals, had no active stay of execution, and could lawfully be put to death. The inmate’s attorneys opposed setting a date, saying they needed more time to pursue available legal proceedings and possible executive clemency. The defense additionally pointed to public records that it said showed the Indiana Department of Correction lacked the drugs needed to conduct an execution and had no lawful source from which to obtain them.

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Florida executes Harold Gene Lucas

Florida state officials executed 74-year-old Harold Gene Lucas by lethal injection on Tuesday evening, concluding a 50-year legal saga stemming from the 1976 murder of a 16-year-old girl in Bonita Springs. STARKE, Fla. -- A man convicted of killing a teenage girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends was put to death Tuesday in the first of three executions planned this month in Florida. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to death for the 1976 shooting attack on Jill Piper and the wounding of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Algeria's President orders Penal Code amendment to introduce death penalty with immediate execution

The president has raised the possibility that some of the fires may have been criminally set and ordered authorities to investigate their causes and identify those responsible. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered amendments to the country’s penal code to allow the death penalty to be carried out against people convicted of deliberately setting forest fires, after a wave of devastating blazes killed 12 people and caused extensive damage across the country.

Florida set to carry out 14th execution this year in the nation's busiest death chamber

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends is set to be executed Tuesday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled this month in the state. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6 p.m. He would be the 14th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signed death warrants for two more executions set for later this September.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

  More cartoons about capital punishment HERE