Israel pushes death penalty for deadly terror attacks

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 towards 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.”