The National Security Committee, chaired by MK Tzvika Foghel (Otzma Yehudit), voted on Sunday to approve the Penal Bill (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists) for first reading, despite the objection of the Knesset‘s legal advisors.
The committee’s legal advisor, Adv. Ido Ben-Itzhak, clarified during the committee session that any vote on the bill would be invalid. “Before the debate, a discussion was held with the committee’s legal advisor and the Knesset’s legal advisor, and there was an agreement that no vote would take place on the bill during the Knesset recess. Our position is that it is mandatory to hear the relevant security elements who have not yet been heard, and to hold a substantive discussion on the bill’s provisions. Given all these considerations, any vote that does take place would be invalid,” he said.
The Penal Bill (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists), 2023, sponsored by MK Limor Sonn Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit), and a similar proposal sponsored by MKs Oded Forer (Yisrael Beitenu), Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beitenu), Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beitenu), Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beitenu) and Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beitenu), were approved by the committee for first reading, but were not merged.
In the explanatory notes to MK Sonn Har Melech’s bill it is stated that the purpose of the legislation is to “nip terrorism in the bud and create a weighty deterrent.”
The bill proposes that a terrorist convicted of murder motivated by racism or hostility toward a particular public, and under circumstances where the act was committed with the intent to harm the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in their homeland, shall be sentenced to death – mandatorily, not optionally or at the court’s discretion. Additionally, the proposal seeks to establish that the death penalty may be imposed by a majority of the judges, and that a final death sentence may not be commuted.
In the debate held prior to the vote, National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) said, “Associates of the prime minister approached me to postpone the discussion because this is not the right time. My answer is a firm no. This law is the order of the day. To create substantial deterrence and to impose the death penalty on these terrorists. My view is the opposite: Precisely at this time, they need to know that if even a single hair of a hostage falls, there will be a death sentence.”
The Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Persons, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, said “It is not for nothing that we are requesting not to hold this discussion. I completely disagree with your assessment of the situation, Minister Ben Gvir, especially since we are currently engaged in a combined military and diplomatic effort to bring back the hostages. This discussion does not help us.”
Committee Chair MK Foghel said, “I heard all the security bodies and I did not accept their situation assessment. I am fed up with all the assessments and the information. We cannot live with the same conception that has been leading us. The debate is meant to add to the Jewish backbone what is required […]. To preserve justice and provide security to the residents of the State of Israel. The actions being taken today, and all of this pressure, will bring about the release of the hostages more quickly.”
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