Jerusalem, 3 november, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Knesset’s National Security Committee on Monday approved advancing a controversial bill that would allow the death penalty for terrorists, a move backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The bill is expected to be presented for a first reading in the full parliament as early as Wednesday.
Government Coordinator for Hostages and Missing Persons Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, who had previously opposed the legislation, told the committee that his position had shifted following the return of all hostages from Gaza.
“In the previous discussion, I expressed strong opposition due to the clear danger to the living hostages,” Hirsch said. “Since they are here, we naturally find ourselves in a different reality. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position is in favor of advancing the law. I see it as a tool for releasing abductees.”
Hirsch also emphasized that security agencies should retain the right to provide confidential guidance before the death penalty is imposed. “I insist on the right of the Shin Bet, the coordinator of missing prisoners, the secret services, and the security agencies to submit a confidential opinion to the court before the death penalty is passed—and this should be part of the law,” he said.
Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit party, which introduced the legislation, rejected any discretion for the security services. “The Shin Bet will have no discretion,” he said. “The moment you give discretion, you harm the deterrent effect.”
Another sponsor of the bill, MK Oded Forer of the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, stressed the legislation’s deterrent purpose. “This is not a tool for achieving revenge but a deterrent,” he said.
But Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Wasserlauf said, “I am not afraid of the word revenge. I think it has a very important part.”
The bill’s explanatory notes stipulate that terrorists convicted of murder motivated by racism or hostility toward the public—and committed with the aim of harming the State of Israel—would receive a mandatory death sentence. The law would allow the death penalty to be imposed even by majority vote and would eliminate any possibility of mitigation once a final sentence has been issued.
Debate over the legislation has been ongoing for months. The committee had postponed discussion last September due to concerns that Hamas might harm hostages in retaliation, a decision reportedly requested by Hirsch and the families of those held. Netanyahu has repeatedly called for cabinet approval of the bill, while Ben-Gvir’s party has pressed for its swift passage.
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.
Related Topics
