Overview
- The Knesset’s National Security Committee approved the measure on 3 November and advanced it to the plenum for a first reading.
- The draft mandates an automatic death sentence for a terrorist convicted of murder motivated by racism or hatred, leaving no judicial discretion.
- National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir is pushing for an expedited vote and has threatened to pull his party’s support unless a floor vote occurs by 9 November, as Netanyahu and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch are reported to back the bill.
- Reports say the law would apply to killings of Israeli citizens for nationalist motives and would not cover cases in which an Israeli kills a Palestinian, prompting warnings of discriminatory enforcement and further escalation.
- Executions are exceptionally rare in Israel, where the last execution was that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962.