Amended Legislation To Allow Simple Majority For Death Penalty

The Security Cabinet will convene Wednesday to discuss an amendment to the death penalty law that would grant military courts the authority to rule in favor of the death penalty with a simple majority. While the death penalty already exists as a punishment in Israel, it is only carried out in the rarest of occasions, and only after passing a unanimous vote of three presiding judges. The proposed amendment would allow the courts to impose the death penalty with a simple majority of 2 to 1.

“At last, the death-penalty-for-terrorists law is coming to a vote. I am sure that my fellow ministers understand that we need all available means in the fight against terror,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman wrote on Twitter, adding that “a terrorist who slaughters an entire family doesn’t need to return home. There is no reason for us to be more enlightened that the United States or Japan in the war on terror.”

In January, a similar law passed on the Knesset floor by a majority of 52 to 49, only to be thwarted by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who insisted such a policy change must also include a Cabinet decision. “I said we’ll hold a Cabinet meeting and that is where we will make the decision,” Netanyahu said in January, adding “It has been made clear to me today that there is no legal requirement for a Cabinet decision, but it would be proper for the Cabinet to hold such a meeting, and we will do so between the preliminary and first readings [of the law].”