On March 30, 2026, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed the discriminatory Death Penalty Bill expanding and facilitating the scope and use of the death penalty for terroris-related offenses.

This Bill allows for Military courts in the occupied West Bank to impose the death penalty against, mainly if not exclusively, Palestinians convicted of deliberate killings in actions that are defined as terrorist acts under Israel’s counter-terrorism law. Furthermore, the newly approved Bill provides for, yet fails to specify, the situations in which courts will be allowed to order a life sentence instead. Lastly, the Bill authorizes the Defence Minister (currently Israel Katz) to determine whether defendants from the West Bank will be tried before military or civil courts, and does not provide for pardons for those sentenced to death.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom have expressed deep concern over this bill, which would significantly expand the circumstances under which the death penalty could be imposed in Israel. The ministers emphasized in particular the de facto discriminatory nature of the measure, warning that its adoption would risk undermining Israel’s commitments to democratic principles. The four ministers also reiterated their firm opposition to the death penalty under any circumstances, describing it as an inhuman and degrading form of punishment, devoid of any deterrent effect, and recalling the rejection of the death penalty as a shared fundamental value.

Other than openly violating the right to life and going against the global trend pushing for the abolishment of the death penalty worldwide, this Bill is openly discriminatory against Palestinians. Indeed, Israeli citizens and residents are explicitly excluded from this provision, with military jurisdiction applying solely to Palestinians, while Israeli settlers are tried in civilian courts. Within the civil court system in Israel, the bill imposes the death penalty for the deliberate killing of a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel.” It mandates execution by hanging, restricts access to legal counsel and visits from family members, limits external oversight, grants immunity to those involved in carrying out executions and prohibits communication of sentences and mandates execution with an accelerated timeframe of 90 days. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said in a statement that military trials of Palestinians have " an approximately 96% conviction rate, based largely on 'confessions' extracted under duress and torture during interrogations." 

Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Changes, Erika Guevara-Rosas has stated “The amendment added to Israel’s Penal Law, known as the ‘Death Penalty for Terrorists’, expands the scope and facilitates the use of capital punishment, at a time when there is a global trend towards abolishing it. It also dismantles fundamental safeguards to prevent the arbitrary deprivation of life and protect the right to a fair trial, and further empowers Israel’s system of apartheid, which is maintained by scores of discriminatory laws against Palestinians”.