Opposing the Death Penalty for the Perpetrator of the flydubbai Terror Attack

We, the thousands of members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” from across Israel, the United States, and the world, condemn the calls for the death penalty for the terrorist who perpetrated the flydubbai FZ1073 cockpit attack. Israeli Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Abraham Shelley recently commented on the case against the accused Omani co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, stating that “the death penalty is waiting for him.” The latest reports have indeed stated that the UAE could pursue the death penalty against the perpetrator, as investigations into the incident continue.

Let there be no doubt: L’chaim members are profoundly distressed by this horrific act of terror. On September 30, 2026, Dubai-owned flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv al-Hammami initiated a potentially catastrophic attack, stabbing Captain Smit Machchhar inside the cockpit using an emergency crash axe. The struggle caused the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to plunge more than 5,100 meters (17,000 feet) in under two minutes over Saudi Arabia. Despite his injuries, Captain Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door. Passengers and crew members overpowered the co-pilot, and reserve pilots on board took control of the plane. The aircraft was safely diverted and landed at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Miraculously, none of the 182 passengers and crew members suffered fatal injuries. Captain Smit Machchhar, the flight crew, and intervening passengers received widespread international praise from leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian officials for preventing a crash and mass casualty event. And yet, paradoxically, now his life-saving efforts are set to be met with further death.

It is indeed possible to abhor this incident and to praise the heroism of Captain Machchhar and his crew, while also standing against a death sentence for Mr. al-Hammani. Killing him will only increase his platform for espousing hatred, making him a martyr to those who think like him, thus inspiring more violence. This reality is just one of the reasons we oppose the death penalty in all cases, but especially for killers with political motivations. Death by incarceration is a sentence that we know will hold him accountable and severely punish him for his heinous, shameless actions.

We follow the guidance of Holocaust survivor and death penalty abolitionist Elie Wiesel, who famously said about capital punishment: ‘Death is not the answer.’” By the end of his life, Wiesel expressed this unconditionally, clearly stating: “With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory, I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”

For members of L’chaim, this stance applies universally; there are no exceptions. It encompasses Nazi perpetrators such as Adolph Hitler and Adolph Eichmann, the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7th, the infamous Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, the antisemitic murderers of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates in 2025, and the perpetrator of the murderous DC Israeli Embassy attack that same year.

As with any murder or attempted murder, we never would claim to speak for victims’ loved ones. I have served as a hospital and community chaplain for years. I regularly counsel mourners that they should feel permission to experience the whole gamut of human emotion while grieving, including rage where appropriate and even the desire for vengeance where applicable. Let no one ever judge anyone in such a position. If I ever were to lose a loved one to murder, or if anyone might attempt to take their life as Mr. al-Hammani did, I could very well find myself desiring — and perhaps even advocating for — the death of my loved one’s assailant. A civilized society is responsible for protecting and honoring all such mourners while also upholding the most basic human rights upon which this world stands. Fundamental to these, of course, is the right to life itself. For this reason, 70% of the world’s nations have abolished the death penalty in law and practice.

Why Oppose the Death Penalty?

L’Chaim has outlined ad nauseum many of the countless reasons why the death penalty is indeed nothing short of an abject abomination now in the twenty-first century. In the face of this recent call for death, we now do so again here:

1) As already stated, it violates the human right to life.

2) It often results in physical torture, and always is psychological torture for individuals counting down to their execution day. There is no humane way to execute human beings against their will. Last week’s torture and botched execution of Christa Pike disgustingly proved this point once again.

3) It invariably is implemented in a racist manner, including in the USA, where cases involving white victims yield the death penalty significantly more than those involving black victims, and in other nations whose laws openly target specific ethnicities. We recently saw this in Israel, whose first death penalty law this year targets Palestinian terrorists.

4) It risks executing the innocent. It so happens that Yom Kippur this year fell on September 21, which is a date when not one by two wrongfully accused individuals were executed, despite their innocence. Indeed, there have been over two hundred exonerations of wrongfully convicted death row inmates since the resumption of executions in the USA in 1976. This tally does not include those before 1976, like Sacco and Vanzetti, who were most likely innocent and executed in Massachusetts 99 years ago, to name just two. How many more were missed and wrongfully executed? We shall never know…

5) It is an insidious tool for vengeance. In a recent Jerusalem Post op-ed, David S. Levine responded to an essay that I penned on behalf of L’Chaim. My JPost op-ed had stated that “the death penalty is vengeance disguised as deterrence.” Mr. Levine’s retort, rather than denying this charge, openly acknowledged that the death penalty is indeed “unapologetically vengeance,” which he then proceeded to justify.

6) It traumatizes executioners and witnesses.

7) From Adolph Hitler to Donald Trump and elsewhere, the death penalty is used as a political tool, particularly for election campaigns, as Ben Gvir’s disgusting, sadistic comments praising a death viewing chamber recently demonstrated yet again.

8) Many execution methods are direct Nazi legacies, including firing squad, gassing, and lethal injection.

9) Meta-studies have determined time and again that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Deterrence is a fallacious delusion when applied to the death penalty, and “retributive” or “proportional” justice does not bring closure for murder victims’ loved ones.

10) Rather, the death penalty only creates more martyrs. A renowned comment regarding the well-established relationship between the death penalty and the desire for martyrdom comes from the 19th-century writer Eliphas Levi. He demonstrated a keen understanding of these basic human dynamics when he wrote: “Every head that falls upon the scaffold may be honored and praised as the head of a martyr.” History has proven this time and again. 11) Antisemitic extremists will assuredly blame all Jews for the execution of their enemies. They will conveniently fold the Israeli ambassador’s death advocacy into the narrative into which they have lumped those who advocate for capital punishment in Israel. It will neatly fit into a warped view of Israel – and, by extension, Judaism – as a so-called “Death Cult.”

​Just as advocating for death in this case and across Israel 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 vast majority of 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 life’s inviolability.

Elie Wiesel encapsulated 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.” Proponents of vengeance who support the death penalty for the terrorist hijacker of flydubbai FZ1073, like those who call for the death penalty for October 7th terrorists and others in and around Israel, should heed Wiesel’s message. They should realize that executions – still – are not the answer today, and never should be.

May the ongoing cycle of violence and killings end.

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM

Jewish Prison Chaplain

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

Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action