Amnesty International says the law would mean ‘punishment is being reserved for and weaponized against Palestinians’.
Published on February 3, 2026
Amnesty International has called on Israel to desist Law which would increase the use of the death penalty, warned that the measures would violate international law and “advance Israel’s apartheid system” against Palestinians.
In a statement on Tuesday, the human rights group touted the two bills Discussions are ongoing in the Knesset Israel’s long-standing opposition to the death penalty would have a major backlash and would disproportionately target Palestinians.
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Amnesty International said the proposals, championed by government figures including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir, would make the death penalty “another discriminatory tool in Israel’s apartheid system”.
“These amendments mean that the most extreme and irreversible punishment is being reserved for and weaponized against Palestinians,” it said.
“If passed, these bills would distance Israel from the vast majority of states that reject the death penalty in law or practice, and would impose a brutal system of apartheid against all Palestinians under Israeli control.”
Israeli officials have defended the measures going to the committee stage for discussion as a necessary deterrent against deadly attacks.
But legal experts said their scope and application would violate international legal norms and result in unfair treatment of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the law is being considered Israel’s genocidal war Settler violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and an increase in Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Death penalty ‘revival’
Israel abolished the death penalty for “common crimes” including murder in 1954 and has not carried out executions since 1962.
While retaining the death penalty for exceptional crimes such as genocide and treason, Amnesty International said the proposed law would “reinvigorate its implementation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory” while weakening safeguards designed to prevent miscarriages of justice.
The bills would amend the Israeli Penal Law and Israel’s protection regulations applicable to the West Bank to allow for the application of the death penalty, the group said.
On October 7, 2023, another will introduce special provisions and an ad hoc military court to try those accused of involvement in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
The rights group said a proposed amendment to military laws in force in the West Bank that would introduce the death penalty would only apply to Palestinians because it would expressly exclude residents of Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.
Other changes, such as the amendment applicable to those charged with willfully causing the death of a person Intent to harm an Israeli citizen or residents” or related to violations related to the October 7 attacks, were also likely to affect Palestinians, it said.