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Knesset bill proposes death penalty for terrorism

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November 12, 2025
3 min read

Knesset bill proposes death penalty for terrorism

The parliament of Israel, the Knesset, has passed the first reading of a bill which proposes the death penalty for those it considers to be terrorists acting against the state. According to BBC News, the requirement would mean it is “likely to be used only against Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.”

The bill has been condemned by human rights groups and the Palestinian Authority. It has received the backing of the Knesset by 36 votes to 16. The bill must pass two more readings before it becomes law.

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In the same parliamentary session, the Knesset also approved the first reading of a different controversial bill that would allow the government to close a foreign media outlet without approval from a court. That vote saw 50 in favour and 41 against. That law would aim to turn a temporary order, which allowed it to close Qatar-owned Al Jazeera in May 2024, into a permanent law. The government’s legal advisers have opposed the law.

While Israel still retains the death penalty for some small crimes, it has only been used twice since 1948, the last being the execution of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

An amendment to the country’s penal code was demanded by the Jewish Power party and signed off by the National Security Committee, saying in a statement that the goal of the law was to “nip terrorism in the bud and create a weighty 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 and the rebirth of the Jewish nation in its homeland will be sentenced to the death penalty, mandatory,” the statement said.

The clause about harming Israel makes it likely, BBC News said, that it is likely that Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, but not Jewish Israelis, would receive a death sentence.

The proposed law was a “new form of escalating Israeli extremism and criminality against the Palestinian people” according to the foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority.

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