Following the return of living hostages from Gaza, Israel’s Knesset moved forward Monday with a controversial bill to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists — a measure long pushed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party.
The National Security Committee approved advancing the bill, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now supports, despite earlier delays due to fears it could endanger hostages held in Gaza. The legislation is expected to reach its first reading in the plenum on Wednesday.
Gal Hirsch, the government’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, told lawmakers he previously opposed the bill but now supports it. “Since the living hostages are here, we are in a different reality,” he said. “The prime minister supports the law. I see it as a tool to bring hostages home.”
Hirsch urged that Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and intelligence services be allowed to provide confidential recommendations before any court sentences a terrorist to death. Ben-Gvir rejected the idea, saying, “There will be no discretion in this law. Once you allow discretion, you harm deterrence.”
The committee was initially set to debate the bill in September, but Hirsch requested a postponement over concerns that Hamas might retaliate against hostages. Similar delays were made in the past for the same reason. Netanyahu also asked the Cabinet to review the issue before approval.
The bill’s explanatory note states that any terrorist convicted of murder “out of racial or national hatred or intent to harm the State of Israel and the Jewish people” will face a mandatory death sentence — “not as an option, but as an obligation.”
The proposal would also allow death sentences to be handed down by a majority of judges and prevent future commutation or reduction of such sentences.