Death Penalty News

Hundreds of Hamas terrorists accused of committing war crimes during their October 2023 attack could face the death penalty after Israel late Monday approved the creation of a special military tribunal to prosecute their cases. In a rare show of Israeli political unity, the legislation received broad backing from both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition and much of the opposition, passing with 93 votes in favor and zero against.

Eichmann was hanged at midnight between May 31 and June 1, 1962. He was the only person executed in Israel after a full civilian judicial process Adolf Eichmann , one of the key architects of the Holocaust , was captured by Mossad agents on May 11, 1960, in Argentina and flown to Israel for trial. Originally born in Solingen, Germany, Eichmann moved with his family to Austria but later returned once the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. During his time as part of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) - the Nazi Security Service, he was involved in the surveillance of Jewish organizations. In 1937, he visited the British Mandate of Palestine to promote the Zionist emigration of Jews from Germany. This experience would later prove instrumental when he was appointed head of the Gestapo’s Jewish Affairs division at the outset of World War II.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure that has been harshly condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane. The passage of the bill marked the culmination of a years-long drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offenses against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person. The law makes the death penalty — by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges — language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

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.

For years, there was a broad consensus in Israel that there was no benefit to reintroducing the death penalty. But now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reportedly considering supporting a bill which would bring back capital punishment for convicted terrorists. The bill, which has passed its first reading in the Knesset, would introduce the death penalty for those who murder Jews – specifically, Palestinian terrorists. It would not apply to Jews who commit acts of terrorism and murder Palestinians. And it would not apply if Israeli Arabs, who are full citizens, are murdered.

Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill in its first reading that would allow the death penalty for terrorists, a measure pushed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and aimed largely at Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis. The bill passed 39-16 and requires two more readings. A bill proposing the death penalty for terrorists passed a first reading in Israel's parliament on Monday – a measure that could apply to Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.

A Nazi executioner in an infamous World War II photograph has been unmasked for the first time after 80 years, using Artificial Intelligence .  The man holding a pistol to the head of a kneeling Jewish victim in the harrowing photo known as 'The Last Jew of Vinnytsia' has been identified by a historian as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Jakobus Onnen , who was 33 at the time of the killing. The heart-wrenching photograph, long regarded as one of the most haunting images of World War II, shows a German soldier in spectacles aiming his weapon at a man kneeling beside a mass grave while several other soldiers look on.

It's just a question of whether we have the guts and the determination to ensure that these butchers receive the maximum punishment," said IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch. Twenty-two Hamas terrorists who raped and murdered their way through Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023 will be hanged, British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported on May 3. Analysts JNS spoke with caution that justice will not be swift, however. “It should be imminent. It should be quick. It should be easy. But the chances that’s actually going to be the case are very slim,” said Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, who served as director of the military prosecution for Judea and Samaria and currently holds a senior position at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

Israel has compiled a thick dossier against the suspected killers who unleashed the Oct. 7 bloodshed For the first time in more than 60 years, Israeli prosecutors say they are poised to hang Hamas terrorists who raped and slaughtered residents of a kibbutz. The last time the country executed anyone was when Nazi henchman Adolf Eichmann was hanged on June 2, 1962. According to the U.K. Sun, Israeli intelligence agents have uncovered a mountain of evidence since the Hamas death cult unleashed the latest Mideast war on Oct. 7, 2023.

We, the 3,800+ members of the group “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” wish to respond respectfully to Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman’s Feb. 15th Jerusalem Post op-ed entitled “Should Israel execute Hamas terrorists for war crimes on par with the Nazis?” In his thoughtful, powerful and nuanced essay, Rabbi Dr. Lieberman expresses how difficult it has been for him as a rabbi and physician to even ask this question, given the sanctity of life to which he has devoted his laudable career. We profoundly honor Rabbi Dr. Lieberman’s sacred callings, as well as his courage in sharing his feelings so openly and vulnerably in the public square. We also empathize with his suffering and understand and respect his position. Indeed, like Jews everywhere, we too have been shocked beyond belief by the horror and barbarity that continue to unfold in the wake of the Oct. 7th, 2023 pogrom. The mutilated bodies of the youngest members of the Bibas family that Hamas just released are a palpable remi...

The Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 atrocities could be charged with mass terrorism, murder with exceptional cruelty, assisting an enemy in war, but likely not genocide In the immediate wake of the savage October 7 massacres committed by Hamas and amid the IDF’s operations to liberate Israeli towns and communities overrun by the terror group, Israeli security forces captured several dozen of the 3,000 terrorists involved in the atrocities. These terrorists participated in the massacre of 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians including babies, children, and the elderly — and also committed acts of torture, rape, and other severe crimes.

Israel will likely be victorious in its war of self-defense against the Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre. But the expected victory will not truly resolve the situation. There will have to be further medical and psychological support for the displaced and resilient but traumatized Israelis. It will take time to rebuild devastated communities, homes and families. Israel will have to work to fortify its borders.

Early 2023, the newly elected government of Israel announced an ensemble of judicial reforms; including a new bill that would introduce the death penalty for acts of terrorism. As of May 2023, the judicial reforms have been put on hold by the PM Netanyahu. This article takes a historical perspective to recontextualize the issue of the death penalty in Israel, as well as the views of civil society organizations on the subject. In January, the newly elected government of Israel announced an ensemble of judicial reforms which would modify the entire Israeli judiciary system. As part of this reform package is a law trying to instate mandatory death penalty for those deemed “terrorists” by the State. Specifically, the law targets anyone who “intentionally or out of indifference causes the death of an Israeli citizen when the act is carried out from a racist motive or hate to a certain public… and with the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its hom...

Jerusalem (AFP) -- Days after Israel's spectacular announcement that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann had been captured and brought to Israel for trial, Gabriel Bach was given an assignment that forever changed his life. Bach was Israel's deputy state attorney when, 60 years ago this month, the world learnt that a key architect of Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution" to exterminate Europe's Jews had been seized by Israeli secret agents. Eichmann was snatched on May 11 by a Mossad team in Argentina, where he had been living under an assumed name. Prime minister David Ben-Gurion announced his capture on May 23. A few days later, the Germany-born Bach received a call from Israeli justice minister Pinchas Rosen, the now 93-year-old Bach recounted in an interview with AFP at his Jerusalem home. "He said: 'Mr. Bach, I imagine that you will be one of the prosecutors in the case, but I have a request to make. I would like you to be in charge of ...

Military court convicts Palestinian terrorist for 2018 murder of Ari Fuld A West Bank military court convicted a Palestinian teenager of murdering Israeli-American Ari Fuld in a 2018 stabbing attack at the West Bank’s Gush Etzion Junction. The Judea Military Court court found 18-year-old Khalil Jabarin guilty of one count of intentionally causing death — the court’s equivalent of murder — and three counts of attempted murder. Jabarin stabbed Fuld, a father of four, multiple times in the back and neck as he was standing outside a supermarket near the Gush Etzion Junction in the central West Bank. After he was stabbed, Fuld pursued and shot his assailant, who was attempting to attack a shop employee, possibly saving her life. He then collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to his wounds. Fuld’s family lauded the court’s ruling and called for Jabarin to be given the maximum punishment. But apparently recognizing that the court would not hand down a sen...

But PM says legislation ‘not promising’ and ‘we don’t determine the punishment’; relatives of Achiad Ettinger accuse IDF soldiers of failing to open fire at terrorist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday paid a condolence call to the family of Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, who was killed in a combined shooting and stabbing terror attack in the northern West Bank on Sunday. During the visit in the central West Bank settlement of Eli, Netanyahu told the bereaved family he would attempt to legislate the death penalty for terrorists in Israel. “It’s not promising, it’s not promising,” he added, according to footage from the visit. Ettinger, a 47-year-old father of 12, succumbed to his injuries on Monday, a day after the attack that began at Ariel Junction, in which IDF soldier Gal Keidan, 19, was also killed. According to Israeli authorities, after fatally stabbing Keidan, the suspect, who has been named as Omar Abu Laila, 18, grabbed his gun and opened fire at passing ...

Top government ministers are demanding that the courts finally invoke Israel's underutilized death penalty. What's got the whole nation in a uproar is the savage murder last Thursday in Jerusalem of a teenage Jewish girl by a knife-wielding Palestinian man. Ori Ansbacher, 19, was taking a stroll in a wooded area just a few hundred yards from Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo when she was set upon by 29-year-old Arafat Irfayia, a Palestinian from Hebron. Details of the attack are under a strict gag order, but local media and government officials have described Ansbacher's slaying as "grisly" and "brutal." It is also clear that the act of violence, if not the choice of victim, was premeditated. After being arrested in an IDF raid on the Palestinian Authority's de facto capital of Ramallah, Irfayia admitted to Israeli authorities to having set off from Hebron early Thursday morning armed with a knife and intent on killing a Jew. DNA ev...

Jerusalem one of 123 nations voting for resolution hailing the ‘possibility of moving away from capital punishment through domestic decision-making’ As the Knesset advances controversial legislation calling for the death penalty for convicted terrorists, Israel this week voted in favor of a United Nations resolution calling for a global moratorium on capital punishment in an effort to abolish the practice altogether. Jerusalem on Tuesday was 1 of 123 countries that supported Resolution A/C.3/73/L.44, which “expresses its deep concern about the continued application of the death penalty” and “welcomes the steps taken by some states to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed.” 36 countries, including the US, opposed the motion. 30 abstained. The resolution, discussed biannually by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, welcomes “initiatives and political leadership encouraging national discussions and debates on the possibility of m...

Nadav Argaman says legislation being pushed by defense minister to allow execution of Palestinian attackers is ‘not helpful’ Shin Bet security service chief Nadav Argaman said on Tuesday that he was “unequivocally” against a controversial bill that aims to make it easier for Israel to sentence convicted Palestinian attackers of civilians and soldiers to death. Argaman was briefing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on the growing instability in the Palestinian territories, warning lawmakers that the relative calm in the West Bank was a “deceptive quiet.” “I unequivocally oppose the death penalty for terrorists — it’s not helpful,” he said in response to a question from Zionist Union MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin about the legislation, which is set to be debated in the Knesset next week. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the go-ahead for lawmakers to advance the bill, reportedly going against the advice of the security establishment. Acco...

Bethlehem: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has given a nod for Death Penalty Bill which would make it easier for courts to hand death sentences to Palestinians who have killed Israelis or soldiers.  Though Israel has a law permitting the death penalty, under the law death penalty may only be imposed by unanimous decision from a panel of three judges. However, no executions have been carried out since 1962. The bill in question was proposed by Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which Netanyahu backed yesterday.  This bill would remove the requirement of approval by a panel of three judges, allowing both civilian and military courts to execute Palestinians with a majority decision. To prepare the legislation for its first reading in the Knesset, the bill is expected to be brought up at the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in the next few days.  As reported by Israeli news sites, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benj...