Israel Passes Law Mandating Death Penalty by Hanging for Palestinian Terror Convicts

Israel's parliament passed a law on March 30, 2026, making death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of lethal attacks classified as terrorism, a measure condemned internationally as discriminatory and a violation of international law. The Knesset approved the legislation by a vote of 62 to 48, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally present to cast a vote in favor. The law mandates execution within 90 days of sentencing and removes the right to clemency. While the law formally applies to Israeli citizens as well, its specific language — targeting attacks defined as "negating Israel's existence" — makes it effectively inapplicable to Jewish Israelis, according to critics. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the law's primary champion, celebrated its passage by brandishing a bottle of champagne on the Knesset floor, while Deputy Speaker Limor Son Har-Melech and other far-right lawmakers wore lapel pins shaped like nooses. Israeli legal experts said the law is expected to be challenged before Israel's Supreme Court and that executions in the near future are unlikely.

UN warns application in occupied territories would be a war crime UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk issued a sharp rebuke on March 31, urging Israel to repeal the legislation immediately. „It raises serious concerns about due process violations, is deeply discriminatory, and must be promptly repealed.” — Volker Türk via Reuters Türk said the law was inconsistent with Israel's international legal obligations, citing the removal of the right to pardon and the 90-day execution mandate. He warned that applying the law in the occupied Palestinian territories would constitute a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel has ratified, requires that persons condemned to death retain the right to petition for pardon and mandates a minimum of six months between sentencing and execution — provisions the new law directly contradicts, according to law professor Mordechai Kremnitzer of the Israel Democracy Institute. The European Commission described the law as "very worrying" and "a clear step backwards" in terms of commitment to democratic principles, according to Reuters reporting.

Palestinian families in Ramallah protest, fearing unfair trials Families of Palestinian prisoners held a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday, calling for the law to be repealed. Israeli rights group B'Tselem has documented that military courts in the West Bank, where only cases involving Palestinians are heard, carry a conviction rate of 96 percent, and has reported a history of confessions extracted under duress or torture — allegations Israel denies. Amnesty International has similarly stated that the military court system routinely relies on evidence obtained through torture and abuse. The law provides judges the option to impose life imprisonment instead of execution, but only in unspecified "special circumstances," and does not require a unanimous verdict for a death sentence. Maysoun Shawamreh, whose 29-year-old son Mansour is imprisoned on attempted murder charges, said the news had come "like a thunderbolt on the prisoners' families." Abdel Fattah al-Himouni, whose son Ahmed awaits trial over a combined shooting and stabbing attack near Tel Aviv in October 2024 that killed seven people, said he feared his son would not receive a fair trial and appealed to human rights organizations to pressure the Israeli government. Noa Sattath, head of a leading Israeli civil liberties organization that has already filed a Supreme Court challenge, described the scene in the Knesset as "shocking."

„It is quite shocking to see the openness and the joy in celebrating death that the government is promoting through this law.” — Noa Sattath via NPR

Spain calls it apartheid; Israel has executed only once since 1962 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most vocal international critics, writing on the social media platform X that the law represented "another step towards apartheid." „This is an asymmetric measure that would not apply to Israelis committing the same crimes. The same crime, a different punishment. This is another step towards apartheid. The world cannot remain silent.” — Pedro Sánchez via Reuters Sinn Féin's foreign affairs spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire described the legislation as "soulless, racist and inhuman," while Irish Social Democrats spokesperson Patricia Stephenson called it "barbaric." Spain has been in a prolonged diplomatic dispute with Israel since Madrid's sharp criticism of Israeli military conduct in Gaza, and withdrew its ambassador from Israel on March 11, 2026, following its opposition to the United States-Israel strikes on Iran. Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954; the only person executed in Israel following a civilian trial was Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, hanged in 1962. The law's passage was driven in part by political pressure from far-right coalition partners, who had threatened to collapse Netanyahu's government if he withheld support. Israeli legal experts, including Kremnitzer, said the law contains elements in breach of international conventions and that the Supreme Court is likely to strike it down, making actual executions in the near term improbable.

Israel has applied the death penalty only twice in its history: in 1948, shortly after the state's founding, and in 1962, when Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging for his role in the Nazi Holocaust. Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. Military courts in the West Bank, which handle cases involving Palestinians exclusively, have operated separately from Israel's civilian court system for decades. The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, following Hamas attacks on Israel, and a ceasefire was declared on October 10, 2025, though it has been heavily violated. Settler violence in the West Bank rose to record levels following the October 7 attacks, according to The Guardian.

96 (%) — conviction rate in West Bank military courts

90 (days) — maximum time between sentencing and execution under new law

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