The Death Penalty Law: A New Brutal Tool of Genocide

Al-Mezan Center strongly denounces the Israeli Knesset’s rapid consideration and adoption of this last piece of legislation aimed at Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention. This brutal piece of legislation, providing for death by hanging, is another means by which Israel can kill Palestinians, a further weapon in Israel’s genocidal arsenal. Al Mezan considers it a brutal approach that evidence Israel's determination to continue its genocide. The law's adoption would further emphasize the international system's inability to end the Israeli crimes that have killed tens of thousands of civilians protected by the virtue of international law. Further, the Center condemns the racist nature of the law, which is applicable to the Palestinian prisoners only, and not to Israelis who carried out mass killings of Palestinians.

On Monday, 30 March 2026, the Israeli Knesset approved, in the second and third readings, the draft death penalty law. Sixty-two members voted in favor of the law, 48 against it, and one abstained. Thus, the Law becomes final and effective after its publication in the Israeli Gazette. The Law o applies to anyone convicted of murder who can be defined as “terrorist” (motivated by the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel”) and grants the judiciary the power to impose a sentence of death by a majority of judges, i.e., with no requirement of judicial unanimity. The There is no right to appeal against the death sentence, which is to be implemented within 90 days.  In addition, the prisoner is denied the right to seek a general or presidential pardon. It should also be stressed that unless ill-defined “special reasons” apply, the death penalty will be mandatory. apply the judiciary will be obliged to impose the death penalty.

Al-Mezan stresses that the Death Penalty Law, in its current form, legitimizes murder, and any implementation of it should be considered a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute established for the International Criminal Court. This Law applies to Palestinians only and is hence racially discriminatory and a violation of this violates the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which Israel is a signatory to. Furthermore, the lack of any right to appeal constitutes a violation of the Article 14 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the person's right to resort to a higher court to reconsider their conviction and sentence. The denial of any right to seek a pardon is also racially discriminatory. Also, the power to impose a death sentence by a majority rather than a unanimous judicial ruling indicates their intentions to facilitate the issuance of death sentences.

The Death Penalty Law was considered and adopted within six months, commencing with the Knesset Security Committee’s approval of it in its preliminary reading on September 28, 2025. This demonstrates the determination on the part of the occupation authorities   to broaden the scope of its genocidal project, as well as a serious disregard of all calls made by international bodies – and the repeated calls by al-Mezan – for international law to be respected and enforced. Al-Mezan’s documentation over the years has demonstrated the brutal denial of the human rights of all Palestinians, including those in Israeli detention. Palestinian detainees are processed by military courts which violate the very basic principles of fair trials: confessions are obtained under torture, and there appears to be no presumption of innocence.

Palestinian prisoners are being brutally tortured, starved, raped and subject to medical negligence, sometimes leading to their death, and they are denied access to legal advice and support. as has been recently highlighted Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has in her recent report cast further light on the use of torture as a genocidal tool. The new Death Penalty Law risks being just one more means by which Palestinians are murdered by the state of Israel, whether inside or outside the walls of Israeli detention facilities. It risks becoming just one more genocidal tool. Al-Mezan Center warns against the implementation of the Death Penalty Law and calls on the international community to break their silence and bear their legal and ethical responsibilities towards the brutal crimes and unprecedented horrors taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories, and to take the necessary effective measures that would stop the occupation authorities from implementing the Death Penalty Law and force them to cease all violations of human rights, including the ongoing genocide.

Al-Mezan calls upon the international community to ensure that Israel abides by its obligations under international law, and that for perpetrators of war crimes including e called to account those who ordered the commission of the war crimes be called to account. Victims must be guaranteed justice, including compensation and redress. It also calls on the UN General Assembly to activate its “Uniting for Peace” decision in view of the fact that the Security Council, has failed to perform its duties and take suitable measures to end all the Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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