"Terrorists": Israel votes for the death penalty – but only for Palestinians

The Israeli parliament has voted to reinstate the death penalty for terrorists. However, the maximum sentence does not apply to Israelis.

The Israeli parliament has passed a first reading of a bill to introduce the death penalty for convicted "terrorists." A majority of 39 to 16 voted in favor of the measure on Monday evening. For it to become law, it must still pass a second and third reading. The bill would allow the death penalty to be imposed on a Palestinian who kills an Israeli, but not on an Israeli who kills a Palestinian.

The Knesset's National Security Committee approved plans for a corresponding amendment to the penal code last week. Explanatory notes from the committee regarding the bill state that a "terrorist" convicted of murder motivated by racism or hatred of the public should henceforth be subject to mandatory death sentences. This would also apply to "circumstances in which the act was committed with the intent to harm the State of Israel ."

The aim of the planned change is to "tackle terrorism at its root" and to ensure a "strong deterrent".

Under Israeli law, the death penalty can already be imposed for certain crimes. In fact, it was last carried out in Israel in 1962 – against Adolf Eichmann, a former German SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the main organizers of the deportation of European Jews to Nazi extermination camps, who had previously been convicted by a Jerusalem court.