Israel’s Latest Death Penalty Bill is Unfit for Civilized Humanity

Any nation that engages in the blatant human rights violation that is capital punishment inherently fails the litmus test for a civilized society. The latest iteration of Israel’s proposed death penalty bill for convicted terrorists is no exception. On the contrary, it only provides further evidence of how quickly any procedural safeguards and notions of humanitarian practices evaporate once a civilization opens itself to the veritable danse macabre of state-sponsored killing. Attorney Robert Dunham, Director of the Death Penalty Policy Project and former Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, encapsulated it best when he wrote that the current bill “is a walking human rights violation—including denial of meaningful access to counsel, non-unanimous sentencing votes in military trials, no possibility of reversing or commuting a sentence, etc.”

The most recent version of the Knesset’s proposed death penalty bill, which far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Otzma Yehudit initiated, would require the Israel Prison Service commissioner to designate a prison officer to hang those condemned to death.  While the bill stipulates that the prison warden, a judicial representative, an official auditor, and a representative of the inmate’s family must be present, it allows the sentence to proceed even if some of these parties are absent, to prevent delays. Furthermore, prison officers and the state would have complete civil and criminal immunity for carrying out the sentence. While the prison service website would publish details of the execution, the Freedom of Information Law would not apply to the specifics of the act, and the identities of those carrying out the sentence would remain confidential. Egregiously, the bill also prohibits any reduction, commutation, or cancellation of the sentence once finalized.  The Israel Prison Service would hold the condemned in complete isolation, limiting visits to authorized personnel and restricting legal consultations to visual consultations via video conferencing calls only.

The list of glaring human rights violations continues. Under the proposal, the state could impose a death sentence without a prosecutor’s request. Verdicts would require only a simple majority rather than unanimity. The legislation would also require military judges of lieutenant-colonel rank or higher to conduct trials and carry out executions within 90 days of the final ruling, following a judge-signed execution order, under prison service supervision.

These specific human rights transgressions only add to the inherent ways in which Israel’s death penalty bill – like any version of capital punishment -is an abject abomination. The thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” have outlined time and again the multiple reasons for this well-deserved designation. First and foremost, rather than deterring acts of terrorism, the death penalty would instead incite and invite more shaheeds – martyrs – to attack Israel. The death penalty also violates the human right of life, always constitutes torture, risks executing the innocent, is racist in its application, and – from Adolph Hitler to Trump to National Security Minister Ben-Gvir – is used as a political tool, particularly for election campaigns. L’chaim has also illustrated how Jewish tradition makes the death penalty virtually impossible, and how many execution methods are direct Nazi legacies, including firing squad, gassing, and lethal injection.

If the Knesset were to enact this medieval bill and the unconscionable stain of executions were to succeed in darkening of what remains of the moral fabric of Israeli society, antisemitic extremists would assuredly blame all Jews for their state’s sponsored murder program, neatly fitting it into their warped view of Israel  – and, by extension, Judaism  – as a so-called  “Death Cult.” Just as this bill jeopardizes the safety and security of Jews across the globe in this way, it also threatens to permanently mar what remains of Israel’s moral standing among the more than 70% of world nations that have abolished the death penalty in law and practice. In the highly volatile political climate that now imperils the rule of law in Israel, this issue further normalizes the invocation of state violence. It widens the gap between modern-day Israel and the central Jewish value of the inviolability of life. Famed death penalty abolitionist Elie Wiesel best articulated L’chaim’s stance when he said of capital punishment that – in the shadow of the Holocaust – “death should never be the answer in a civilized society.” Israeli lawmakers should heed Wiesel’s message and realize that executions – still – are not the answer today, and never should be.

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM, BCC

Co-Founder: L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty

Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action