Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

is a legal penalty in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Capital punishment has only been imposed twice in the history of the state and is only to be handed out for treason, genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people during wartime. Israel is one of seven countries that has abolished capital punishment for "ordinary crimes only." Israel inherited the

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

code of law, which included

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

for several crimes, but in 1954, Israel abolished the penalty for murder. The last execution was carried out in 1962, when

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

architect

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' John Demjanjuk was sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity; his sentence (and conviction) was subsequently overturned in 1993 following an appeal to the

Israeli Supreme Court ar, المحكمة العليا , image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg , imagesize = 100px , caption = Emblem of Israel , motto = , established = , location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem , coordina ...

. No death sentences have been sought by Israeli prosecutors since the 1990s.

History

Israel's rare use of the death penalty may in part be due to Jewish religious law.

Biblical law Biblical law refers to the legal aspects of the Bible, the holy scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Judaism * Law of Moses * Mitzvah, divine commandment ** The Ten Commandments ** 613 commandments * Seven Laws of Noah, laws applicable to all o ...

explicitly mandates the death penalty for 36 offenses, from

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the ...

and desecration of the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as ...

. However, in ancient Israel, the death penalty was rarely carried out. Jewish scholars since the beginning of the

common era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

have developed such restrictive rules to prevent execution of the innocent that the death penalty has become

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

abolished.

Moses Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah s ...

argued that executing a defendant on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until we would be convicting merely "according to the judge's caprice". His concern was maintaining popular respect for law, and he saw errors of commission as much more threatening than errors of omission.

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Jewish religious leaders and scholars believe that the death penalty should remain unused, even in extreme cases such as political

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

. When the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, it inherited the British Mandate's legal code, with a few adjustments, and thus capital punishment remained on the books. During the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, the first execution took place after

Meir Tobianski Meir Tobianski ( he, מאיר טוביאנסקי, also ''Tubianski''; 20 May 1904 – 30 June 1948) was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who was executed as a traitor on circumstantial evidence on the orders of Isser Be'eri, the fir ...

, an Israeli army officer, was falsely accused of espionage, subjected to a

drumhead court martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...

and found guilty. He was executed by firing squad, but later posthumously exonerated. In December 1948, it was decided that in the event of further death sentences, all executions would be stayed until the government determined the fate of the death penalty. The first death sentences imposed by an Israeli civil court, against two Arabs who had been found guilty of murder, were confirmed by an appeals court in November 1949, but the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by President

Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( he, חיים עזריאל ויצמן ', russian: Хаим Евзорович Вейцман, ''Khaim Evzorovich Veytsman''; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israel ...

, due to his opposition to the death penalty. The Israeli cabinet first considered abolishing the death penalty in July 1949. In 1950, seven convicted murderers were on death row in Israel. In 1951 the Israeli cabinet again proposed that the death penalty be abolished. The 1950 Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law prescribes a mandatory death sentence for the most serious crimes in the law, which was first imposed in 1952 imposed on Yechezkel Ingster, who was convicted of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

for torturing and beating other Jews as a

kapo A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...

. The court also recommended that the death sentence be commuted; he had lost a leg and suffered from a heart ailment. Ingster served time in jail and was later pardoned but died shortly after he was released. In 1953, another death sentence for murder was imposed. It was not carried out, and the convicted murderer received a presidential pardon six years later. In 1954 the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...

voted to abolish the death penalty for the crime of murder. The death penalty was retained for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, treason and certain crimes under military law during wartime. In 1962 the second execution—and the only civil execution—in Israel took place when

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

war crimes relating to

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

. Throughout the following decades, death sentences were occasionally handed down to those convicted of terrorist offenses, but these sentences were always commuted. In 1988 John Demjanjuk, a guard in a Nazi death camp during the war, was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death after being identified as the guard nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible" by inmates for his brutality, but his identification, conviction and sentence were later overturned on appeal. In the mid-1990s the practice of seeking the death penalty for those facing terrorism charges ceased. In the aftermath of the

Itamar attack The Itamar attack, * * also called the Itamar massacre, was a terrorist attack on an Israeli family in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank that took place on 11 March 2011, in which five members of the same family were murdere ...

in 2011, the issue of the death penalty briefly came up again. Israeli military prosecutors were expected to seek the death penalty for the perpetrators, but in the end did not. Even so, the judges seriously considered imposing the death penalty when determining the sentence of one of the perpetrators, but decided not to, as the prosecution had not requested it. In the March 2015 election, the

Yisrael Beiteinu Yisrael Beiteinu ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, russian: Наш Дом Израиль, lit. ''Israel Our Home'') is a secularist, nationalist right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russia ...

party ran on a platform that included death sentences for terrorists; in July of the same year a bill was proposed, and sponsored by one of the party's members, to allow a majority of presiding judges to sentence a terrorist to death. By a vote of 94–6 the bill was rejected in its first reading.

Calls for imposition of the death penalty

Israeli politicians have sometimes called for the imposition of the death penalty on specific criminals. In 2010

Member of the Knesset Lists of Knesset members cover members of the Knesset of Israel. They are organized by session, by ethnicity and by position. By session * List of members of the first Knesset (1949–51) * List of members of the second Knesset (1951–55) * Li ...

Ayoub Kara Ayoob Kara ( ar, أيوب قرا, he, איוב קרא; born 12 March 1955) is an Israeli Druze politician. He has served as a member of the Knesset for Likud in four spells between 1999 and 2021, and as Minister of Communications. Biography ...

called for the imposition of the death penalty on the perpetrator of the

Tapuah Junction stabbing (2010) The Tapuah Junction stabbing is a Palestinian attack that took place on 10 February 2010 in the West Bank when Palestinian Authority police officer Muhammad Hatib stabbed Druze Israeli soldier Ihab Khatib to death as the latter was sitting in ...

. In 2017 political figures including Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

called for the penalty to be imposed on the perpetrator of the 2017 Halamish stabbing attack. Representatives in

the government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

plan to introduce to the

a bill which would allow the death penalty for

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. In January 2018, a bill making it easier for

military court A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

s to hand down death sentences was approved by the Knesset in a preliminary vote of 52-49. Prime Minister Netanyahu voted in favor, but later said the bill required "deeper discussion" among the ministers before being voted on again. Netanyahu stated that he would be supporting a bill that would make the death penalty a common punishment. If the proposed bill becomes law, it would allow the IDF military court martial in the West Bank (including

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separ ...

) to sentence those convicted of terrorism charges to the death penalty, only with the approval of the majority of a panel of judges.

Avigdor Lieberman Avigdor Lieberman (, ; russian: Эве́т Льво́вич Ли́берман, Evet Lvovich Liberman, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician serving as Minister of Finance since 2021, having previously served twice as Deputy ...

and his

party are strongly supportive of the death penalty for

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. In March 2023, a bill for the death penalty against terrorism offences was passed in the Knesset in a preliminary vote by 55-9. The bill was supported and pushed by

Itamar Ben-Gvir Itamar Ben-Gvir ( he, אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli lawyer and politician, who serves as the Minister of National Security. He is additionally a member of the Knesset and leader of Otzma Yehudit. He h ...

and

Jewish Power Otzma Yehudit ( he, עָצְמָה יְהוּדִית, , Jewish Strength', or 'Jewish Power) is a far-right political party in Israel, which has been referred to as Kahanist and anti-Arab. It was originally formed as Otzma LeYisrael (; lit., ' ...

party.

Public opinion

A 2017 poll found that close to 70% of Israelis would support giving death penalty after a trial to Palestinians who murdered Israeli citizens.

Executed people

References

External links

JewishEncyclopedia.com - CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Religious Action Center - Death Penalty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Punishment In Israel