Executing with prejudice: Israel’s death penalty law

It was celebrated with ghoulish delight.  On March 30, the Israeli Knesset passed the Penal Bill (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists), an instrument expanding the use of the death penalty for offences of a terrorist nature.  The death penalty had previously existed in Israeli law for war crimes but was abolished in 1954 for ordinary crimes in peacetime.  Technically, it remained on the books for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and certain cases of martial law.   The law’s purpose is articulated as establishing the death sentence “for the sake of the struggle against terrorism”  for those who have carried out lethal attacks for the protection of the Israeli state, citizens and residents, for reasons of enhancing […]