JERUSALEM: An Israeli parliamentary committee on Monday advanced a bill proposing the death penalty for “terrorists,” a move pushed for by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The National Security Committee approved the amendment to the penal code, which will now be passed on to the parliament for its first reading.
Israel’s hostages coordinator, Gal Hirsch, said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the measure.
Ben Gvir said he would stop his party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) voting with the governing coalition if the law isn’t voted on by Sunday, threatening the government’s survival.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
A statement from the committee that includes the bill’s explanatory note says “its purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”
“It is proposed that a terrorist convicted of murder motivated by racism or hatred toward the public, and under circumstances where the act was committed with the intent to harm the State of Israel... will be sentenced to the death penalty — mandatory,” the statement said.
The rule, it said, was “not optional and without discretion.”
The text also proposes that the death penalty can be imposed by a majority of judges and the sentence cannot be commuted once the ruling is handed down.
Hirsch had previously opposed debating the bill citing concern for living captives held in Gaza.
“Since the hostages are now in Israel, this opposition is no longer relevant,” he said, according to the statement.
“The prime minister supports this proposal. I consider this law to be an additional tool in our arsenal against terrorism and for the release of hostages,” he added.
The bill was introduced by a lawmaker from Otzma Yehudit.
“There will be no room for discretion in this law,” Ben Gvir said on Monday, according to the statement.
“Any terrorist who is preparing to commit murder must know that there is only one punishment — the death penalty.”
Ben Gvir on Friday posted a video of himself standing over a row of Palestinian prisoners lying face down on the ground with their hands tied, in which he called for capital punishment.
Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned the move, saying it “embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation and represents a blatant violation of international law.”
“We call upon the United Nations, the international community, and relevant human rights and humanitarian organizations to take immediate action to stop this brutal crime,” it added in a statement.
Israel advances bill proposing death penalty for “deadly terror attacks”
https://arab.news/yk5cs
Israel advances bill proposing death penalty for “deadly terror attacks”
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the measure
- The death penalty cannot be commuted once the ruling is handed down
In major policy shift on Syria, UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
- Move reflects evolving Syrian political landscape in the post-Assad era, ending a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Friday removed Al-Nusra Front, the militant group that evolved into Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, from its so-called Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.
The move signals a major shift in international policy toward Syria’s evolving political landscape in the post-Assad era, and ends a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo that have been imposed on the group since 2014.
Al-Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham were led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed Al-Julani, who is now Syria’s president and was a leading figure in the offensive that toppled the Assad regime.
The consensus decision by the Security Council’s sanctions committee was announced by the UK, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month and was acting in the absence of the chair of the committee. It followed a request by the new Syrian authorities to delist “Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant.”
The decision means measures that were applied to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham under Security Council Resolution 2734, adopted in 2024, no longer apply. As a result, UN member states are notrequired to freeze the group’s funds, restrict the movement of its representatives, or block the supply or transfer of arms and related materiel.
Al-Nusra Front was added to the sanctions list for its ties to Al-Qaeda and involvement in the financing and execution of militant activities during the war in Syria. The UN initially continued to treat the group’s successor organization, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, as a listed alias.
Al-Sharaa has said the group severed all prior transnational jihadist links and is now solely focused on local Syrian matters.
