The International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD) strongly condemns the Knesset’s approval of a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted in military courts of lethal attacks. According to multiple reports published on 30 March 2026, the law makes capital punishment the default sentence in such cases, permits execution by hanging, sharply limits clemency, and is aimed primarily at Palestinians prosecuted under Israel’s military court system.
IFRD rejects this law in the clearest terms. The death penalty is a cruel, irreversible, and inhuman punishment. When embedded in a discriminatory legal framework that already subjects Palestinians to unequal treatment under occupation, it becomes not only a human rights violation but also an instrument of racialized repression. Human rights groups and legal challengers have already described the measure as discriminatory and constitutionally suspect.
This law does not deliver justice. It institutionalizes revenge, further erodes due process, and deepens a system in which Palestinians are judged under military rules while Israeli settlers are generally subject to civilian law in the same territory. Such legislation risks normalizing state execution as a political tool and will only intensify fear, resentment, and violence.
The passage of this law also runs directly against the global movement toward the abolition of the death penalty. Reuters reported that 113 countries have abolished capital punishment in law, while Israel itself abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954 and has carried out only one execution since then, that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
IFRD calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the implementation of this law, repeal it in full, and uphold their obligations under international human rights law. We also call on the European Union, the United Nations, and all states committed to the prohibition of cruel and inhuman punishment to publicly oppose this measure and to take urgent action against any policy that further entrenches discrimination and dehumanization against Palestinians. A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom on 29 March 2026 already signaled serious European concern over the bill.
No parliament should legislate execution as a response to occupation and conflict. No justice system can claim legitimacy while reserving death as a sentence for an occupied people.
