Capital punishment bill presented by the party of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Relatives of some of the prisoners captured by Hamas in the October 7 attack have urged far-right Israeli lawmakers not to pass a bill that would make it easier to use the death penalty against Palestinian detainees.
A number of suspected attackers were arrested after members of the Palestinian armed group in Gaza killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped around 240, Israel said.
The proposal was put forward by the party of the far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who published on Monday on X: “The law on the death penalty for terrorists is no longer a left-wing issue and right. … (It is) a moral and essential law for the State of Israel.
Relatives of some people detained by Hamas told a parliamentary panel that even discussing the death penalty could have catastrophic consequences for their loved ones detained in Gaza.
“It would mean playing along with their mind games, and in return we would have pictures of our murdered loved ones, and the State of Israel and not them (Hamas) being blamed,” said Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is among the hostages, Ben-Gvir and his party colleagues said.
“Don’t pursue this matter until they’re back here,” she said. “Don’t get my sister’s blood on your hands.”
The hostages’ families fear that even talk of executions could pose a danger to their loved ones, who themselves have already been threatened with execution by Hamas.
Gil Dilkma, a cousin of one of the captives, begged Ben-Gvir to abandon the legislation.
“Eliminate the law if you have the heart,” he said.
In a similar vein, the Missing Families Forum said in a statement that such discussion “endangers the lives of our loved ones without promoting any public purpose.”
Another family member of one of the captives echoed this concern, shouting: “Stop talking about killing Arabs. Start talking about saving the Jews!
Some right-wing politicians have responded to these objections with dismay. Almog Cohen, a member of Israel’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, retorted: “You don’t have a monopoly on pain.”
“You are silencing other families,” said another far-right politician.
Deterrence or revenge?
Some Israeli politicians have argued in the past that more executions would serve to deter “terrorism.”
When a working group was established this month by the Israeli Justice Ministry to find sentences “appropriate to the gravity of the horrors committed” for those tried and convicted, the death penalty was reinstated as an option. .
Ben-Gvir called for the use of the death penalty, saying it was “more crucial than ever… for the sake of those who were murdered and who fell in the line of duty and, nothing less, so that there is no one left.” kidnapped”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, however, has shown little interest in advancing the bill during its long tenure.
The only death sentence handed down by a court in Israel occurred in 1962, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging. Israeli military courts, which often hear cases involving Palestinians, have the power to impose the death penalty by unanimous decision of three judges, but this has never been implemented.
Linor Dan-Calderon, three of whose relatives are detained, accused Ben-Gvir’s party of having “confused priorities.”
“You mixed up because we are a nation that seeks life and not revenge – even though in the past we did something to Eichmann,” she said. “I’m just asking you to take this off the agenda.”