During an Israeli National Security Committee hearing on January 21, 2026, discussing proposed legislation to grant the death penalty for “terrorists,” Israeli parliamentarian Zvika Fogel, head of the committee, said, “In the reality of the State of Israel, we have no choice but to enact it . . . We will give effect to this law. The death penalty for terrorists is self-defense and part of the wall of defense against future terror attacks.”1

Fogel and others argue that instituting the death penalty will reduce the numbers of Palestinians serving long sentences in Israeli prisons, and thus limit Palestinian armed groups’ motivations for kidnapping Israelis to swap for prisoners, as occurred on October 7, 2023.2 Like other Israeli measures—the demolition of the homes of Palestinian family members who carry out attacks, stripping accused Palestinians of their legal residency status, and ongoing abuse in Israeli prisoners inflicted on thousands of detained Palestinians—the legislation is supposed to deter Palestinian resistance to the apartheid system in which Israel has consigned them to a perpetual bare existence.3

But human rights defenders see the implications more broadly. “This bill comes as part of a very wide policy that Israeli ministers and members of the government are speaking very loudly about: that Palestinian lives matter less,” says Naji Abbas, director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel.4

The bill, entitled Penal Law (Amendment No. 159—Death Penalty for Terrorists) 2025, introduces the death penalty for individuals convicted of intentional killing. It passed in its first reading on November 11, 2025. During the third week of January 2026, the bill underwent three consecutive hearings in the National Security Committee and passed the first of three readings in the parliament, or Knesset, signaling Israel is fast-tracking the bill’s implementation.

On January 27, a new version of the bill was published.5 According to a recent briefing paper by four Israeli human rights organizations, “if brought to a vote in the full Knesset plenum, its passage is highly likely.”6

Without explicitly saying so, the bill exclusively targets Palestinians. Not only have the legislation’s sponsors and supporters repeatedly expressed that this bill will be applied to Palestinian perpetrators, one component of the law applies to Israeli military courts in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) that adjudicate mainly Palestinian cases. Indeed, it makes capital punishment mandatory for anyone convicted in the military courts of murder carried out for nationalist reasons. The punishment is to be meted out within 90 days, and there is no opportunity for appeal. By contrast, Jewish settlers are subject to Israeli civil courts, where the law makes capital punishment one possible punishment for crimes of murder carried out for nationalist reasons.

Throughout deliberations on the bill, members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, called for imposing the death penalty against those who murder Jews “simply because they are Jews” and even declared that “there is no such thing as a Jewish terrorist.”7

“The penalty will be applied for crimes committed against citizens of Israel and crimes that are meant to harm the national feelings of Israel as a Jewish state,” Abbas told Jerusalem Story. “That means it’ll be applied against Palestinians—in simple words.”

“Because it’s targeting just Palestinians, [the law] can be considered a war crime,” Abbas added.

According to the briefing paper from the four human rights organizations, “The bill establishes a discriminatory and punitive framework that departs from accepted legal norms by systematically denying Palestinians equal protection under the law, fair-trial guarantees, and protection from torture and inhumane treatment, rendering any resulting death sentence inherently unlawful.”8

International critics of the law say that it must be seen in the context of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, which have been almost universally labeled genocidal.9

Israel does have the death penalty, but the state has only carried it out once against convicted Nazi Adolph Eichmann in 1962.10 “For decades, Israel has maintained a policy of de facto abolition of capital punishment, reflecting a broad recognition, shared across Jewish tradition and democratic societies, that the power of the state to take life demands the greatest restraint,” said a group of leftist Jewish organizations in a letter criticizing the draft law.11

Critics also note that the law asserts Israeli legal authority over military courts in the oPT, an unprecedented move that comes closer to de facto annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“The problem is that, under international law, the military commander is the sovereign authority in the occupied territories and bears governmental powers,” writes the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). “The Knesset is not authorized to dictate the content of military orders or to limit the commander’s powers, since it has no authority over the territories.”12

Israel’s military courts apply a veneer of justice to a deeply inequitable system. According to a Haaretz analysis of military court cases between 2018 and 2021, more than 65 percent of cases heard (excluding traffic violations) were security related. Such charges include membership in banned organizations, a violation of freedom of association, along with other vague crimes. Of the cases analyzed, 99.6 percent of sentences ended with a plea bargain and 96 percent ended in conviction. Palestinians aged between 14 and 16, if accused of security-related offenses, might not be allowed to see a lawyer for 96 hours. Proceedings are conducted solely in Hebrew, a language that many detainees’ lawyers are not sufficiently fluent in.13 No translations are provided.

To insert capital punishment into this unjust system “reinforces a dual legal regime in which one population is exposed to the hardest possible punishment by the court system,” Bissan Amira, researcher at Balasan Initiative for Human Rights, told Jerusalem Story.14 “Let’s not pretend that the death penalty [law] has come out of thin air.”

In the military courts, the law would allow for a death sentence to be carried out via a simple majority vote of judges, even if the prosecution did not seek capital punishment.15

“It seriously risks putting to death innocent people, because the military justice system in the West Bank is so riddled with injustice and lack of due process that anybody can be found guilty,” Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told Jerusalem Story.16 “And this bill would accelerate that process by allowing people to be sentenced to death, even when some judges on the trial panel think the person is innocent.”

Under the new law, in civil courts that serve Israelis, individuals convicted of “intentionally causing the death of an Israeli citizen or resident through an act of terrorism as defined under the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law (Chapter C)”17 could also be sentenced to death.18 The law mandates hanging as the means of execution.

Palestinians carrying Israeli permanent-resident IDs are subject to Israeli courts, where those suspected of “terrorism” see a lawyer in 48 hours, and minors are required to be interviewed with a parent or lawyer. Still, in 2020, 93 percent of security-related offenses resulted in a plea bargain, coming close to the high rates in military courts elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.19

Conditions have changed dramatically since this early 2020s examination, first with the election of the far-right governing coalition in early 2023, and then with Israel’s change in posture toward Palestinians after October 7, 2023.

“Post October 7, the Israeli response toward Palestinians has not been limited to committing genocide in Gaza—you can see the violations in the West Bank,” Amira said. “It’s also involved a systematic escalation across legislation, punishment, and deprivation of basic rights inside prison—all aimed at Palestinians as a collective population.”

With elections to be held in October 2026, Israel’s governing coalition wants to demonstrate that it has filled its promises to the voters.

“Since the beginning of 2023, when the new Israeli coalition government came into power, the Minister of National Security [Itamar] Ben-Gvir has been calling for the death penalty,” Milena Ansari, a researcher on Israel and Palestine at Human Rights Watch, told Jerusalem Story.

If the current fast-tracked bill fails, another one is being advanced in the Knesset. This bill, known as the Tribunals Law, or Prosecution of Participants in the October 7 Massacre Events Bill, 5786—2025, proposes establishing a special tribunal with the power to impose a death sentence for those indicted in the Hamas attack. The bill passed its first reading on January 12, 2026.20

“This is going to be a key election voters’ promise that [the Jewish Power Party is] pushing for,” Tal Steiner, director of the Israeli rights group HaMoked—Center for the Defense of the Individual, told Jerusalem Story.21 “They want to make sure that they are good for it, and that they have a law that they can present to their base.”

Regardless of which bill ends up passing, the impact on Israel’s legal landscape and on Palestinians’ lives will be drastic. According to the briefing paper by the four Israeli human rights organizations:

What also concerns human rights defenders, Ansari emphasized, is how this legislation fits into the increasing brutality Palestinians have experienced inside Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023, where detainees are barely afforded their most basic needs.

“The conditions inside detention are already leading to deaths and injury and neuropsychological and physical trauma,” Ansari told Jerusalem Story.

Since October 2023, 84 Palestinians, including one minor, have died in Israeli jails, according to data from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. This number is likely higher, but B’Tselem could only verify 84 cases. Describing Israeli prisons as “torture camps,” B’Tselem has documented systematic abuse, inhumane conditions, deliberate starvation, and denial of medical treatment, resulting in the deaths of prisoners.23

“This law will only take it a step further by giving legal cover to the use of torture and ill treatment.” Ansari said. “The Israeli authorities are hinting to legalize and codify the use of torture and ill treatment against Palestinians and—most importantly—violating the right to life.”