Israel’s parliament has approved a law making the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians convicted in military courts of carrying out deadly attacks, fulfilling a long-standing demand from far-right allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The legislation has drawn international criticism, as Israel is already under scrutiny over rising violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The measure includes provisions requiring execution by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with limited allowances for delay, no possibility of pardon, and only a narrow option to impose life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only person ever executed in Israel following a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, a key architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.
