As the Knesset advances a bill that would impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists, a group of former senior Shin Bet officials and state legal advisers sent a letter Tuesday to Knesset lawmaker Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit), chair of the Knesset’s National Security Committee, warning that the law would endanger Israel and undermine its interests. The signatories include two former Shin Bet directors and several high-ranking former officials.
The former officials wrote that, based on decades of operational experience, the death penalty “will not achieve its stated purpose of deterrence” and would instead weaken Israel’s international standing and internal cohesion.
The letter states that if passed, the bill “will not strengthen deterrence but will severely harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens, and could endanger Jews and Israelis around the world.” It adds that the law would deepen Israel’s social divide and further damage its standing among democratic nations.
The officials wrote that imposing the death penalty would mark a “serious deviation” from Israel’s longstanding norms and from those of most democracies. They warned that the bill’s structure would create discriminatory legal outcomes, because it would primarily apply to Palestinians in the West Bank who are tried in military courts, not to Israelis convicted of similar acts.
The letter emphasizes that the bill contradicts democratic principles by stripping judges of discretion. “The proposal orders the sentencing judge to impose the death penalty, and the death penalty alone,” they wrote, calling such mandatory sentencing unreasonable “in any context, certainly when a person’s life is at stake.”
The former officials argued that the measure would undermine security rather than enhance it. They cited years of Shin Bet interrogations and intelligence showing that many attackers expect or even seek to die during an attack, meaning the threat of execution would not deter them. “These individuals know they will die, and often want to die, during the attack,” they wrote.
They added that the death penalty would incentivize kidnapping attempts aimed at halting executions and would fuel unrest across the West Bank. They also cited fears of increased glorification of attackers: “They will become heroes to be emulated,” they wrote, noting the cultural power of martyrdom within Palestinian society.
The officials also referenced testimony from former deputy Shin Bet director Itzhak Ilan, who warned in past Knesset hearings that the period between sentencing and execution could trigger hostage-taking attempts, mass unrest and more lethal attacks. Ilan argued that attackers expecting execution would have no reason to restrain themselves, increasing the severity of attacks.
The letter also criticizes the reported shift by Shin Bet director David Zini, whose new position “supports the legislation in principle” while leaving discretion to the courts. The former officials wrote that no factual rationale was provided for the policy reversal and therefore it should not carry weight.
They further warned that adopting capital punishment would place Israel alongside non-democratic states that use it widely, such as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, and would harm relations with the European Union, where the death penalty is fully abolished and incompatible with membership standards.
The officials concluded that the bill is “riddled with profound defects,” including its ethnic imbalance, lack of judicial discretion and its divergence from democratic norms. “A state that erects gallows in its public squares demonstrates extreme violence, scars its collective soul and loses its moral advantage,” they wrote. “This moral stance has been part of Israel’s strength since its founding and must remain so.”