Israel | Heated debate in Knesset over mandatory death penalty for terrorists

Israel’s Knesset National Security Committee on Tuesday advanced preparations for legislation that would expand the use of the death penalty for convicted terrorists, holding a charged debate that exposed deep divisions between security officials, legal authorities, lawmakers, and bereaved families.

The discussion focused on two proposed amendments to Israel’s Penal Law that would make it easier to impose capital punishment in cases of severe terrorist attacks. Israel formally retains the death penalty in limited statutes, including for crimes against humanity and genocide, but it has been carried out only once since the state’s founding, making the move highly controversial domestically and internationally.

In a significant development, a representative of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) told lawmakers that the agency now supports the bill in principle, marking a shift from its longstanding opposition. Speaking by video link, the official said, “Our position is that the death penalty for terrorists has potential advantages but also potential disadvantages.” He added, “We support the bill on the condition that it will not be a mandatory punishment, with discretion.”

The Shin Bet official stressed that deterrence effects are complex, warning that executions can sometimes provoke retaliatory attacks. However, he said the security landscape has changed since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. “The threat posed today from the Gaza Strip is completely different,” he said, adding that greater Israeli control over prisoners has reduced previous concerns about backlash. “Imposing the death penalty on terrorists can contribute” to deterrence, he said, provided authorities retain discretion.

Emotions ran high among relatives of terror victims. Koby Samarno, whose son Yonatan’s body was taken to Gaza, told lawmakers, “I would not be sitting here and 1,200 other families would not have lost their loved ones if terrorists had been sentenced to death even before the October Seven tragedy.” Another bereaved family member, Nati Smadar, said bluntly, “I don’t care what the world says about us giving terrorists the death penalty.”

The Ministry of Justice presented a sharply opposing view. Lilach Wagner, head of the ministry’s penal and serious crime cluster, warned that the proposal raises constitutional, moral, and international law concerns. “Punishment by executing a person is an extreme and irreversible punishment,” she said, noting documented cases of wrongful convictions abroad. Citing the United States, she said, “222 prisoners sentenced to death were acquitted.”

Wagner also warned the bill could expose Israel to intensified international criticism and legal challenges, including claims of non-compliance with human rights conventions. She objected to provisions that would make the death penalty mandatory in certain cases in Judea and Samaria, saying, “Such a requirement does not even exist in the US and is contrary to the position of the professional bodies.” She concluded, “In our opinion, the proposed legislation should not be advanced.”

Opposition MK Gilad Kariv of the Labor Party questioned the process, asking for written Shin Bet assessments and alternatives to mandatory sentencing. Public Defender representatives also criticized what they called vague and contradictory security justifications.

Committee chair MK Zvika Fogel of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party vowed to advance the legislation. “The bill imposing the death penalty on terrorists will not be a ‘dead letter,’” he said. “We cannot ignore the reality that is changing before our eyes.” Fogel argued that elected lawmakers must respond to public demand for stronger deterrence, saying the bill “tells the next terrorist what he is going to face.”

The bills are now being prepared for further readings in the Knesset.

The only individual ever executed by Israel was Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust. He was hanged in 1962, and his ashes were scattered at sea after he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

An Israeli court sentenced John Demjanjuk to death in 1988 for crimes against humanity committed while working at various concentration camps. However, Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 1993. 

Israel eventually extradited Demjanjuk, who was later convicted in Germany as an accessory to the murder of more than 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor death camp. Demjanjuk died in Germany while appealing that conviction.

Source: jwire.com.au, Pesach Benson, January 21, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde