The Knesset on Wednesday advanced a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian captives, approving it in its preliminary reading.
The primary legislation stipulates that courts will be able to impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of an Israeli.
According to the proposed bill, a mandatory death penalty would be imposed on intentional acts causing the death of an Israeli citizen “with the objective of harming Israel and uprooting the Jewish people from the country”.
The bill - approved 55-9 - was submitted by MK Limor Son Har Melech from the Otzma Yehudit party.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government “will continue to operate in all ways… to deter terrorists.”
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara was set to oppose the law on the grounds that it poses significant constitutional difficulties and goes against Israel’s declarations on the matter in international forums and against the international trend of limiting the use of the death sentence.
A joint statement by Netanyahu and Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the initial bill advanced Sunday stipulates that “courts will be able to impose a death penalty on those who committed a nationalistically motivated murder offense against a citizen of Israel.”
The bill will later be discussed by the high-level security cabinet.
Adalah, a human rights and legal center in Israel, condemned the bill for exclusively targeting Palestinians.
Voting on the bill could exacerbate the tension in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli prisons suppression units attacked on Wednesday the departments of captives in Negev prison.
The Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs said that the Israeli forces attacked the captives and used excessive force against them.
Tension prevails in the Negev prison following an attempt by the Israeli Prison Administration to impose new sanctions on the captives, according to the Commission.
In the same context, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club also spoke about the current tension in the Negev prison.
The inmates have been on a strike for two weeks as a form of objection against Ben Gvir's steps including the transfer of inmates between prisons, and depriving them of privileges.
