Israel’s death penalty drive enters next stage with October 7 military tribunal
Detainees at Ofer Prison, near Jerusalem, occupied West Bank, 28 August 2024
Sari Bashi reports in +972 on 21 May 2026:
Last week, the Israeli Knesset continued its campaign to resurrect the death penalty in Israeli courts — for Palestinians only. On May 11, lawmakers from across the Zionist political spectrum joined forces to pass a bill creating a special military court, whose purpose will be to try those accused of participating in the October 7 attacks in southern Israel and the ensuing hostage-taking.
Under the new law, military-appointed judges will be authorized to sentence defendants to death by hanging, and to deviate from procedural protections and evidentiary rules in order to expedite the trials, some of which may be broadcast to the public. In short, the law’s passage threatens to fast-track show trials and lead to executions of potentially hundreds of Palestinian defendants, based on confessions extracted through torture that runs rampant in Israeli detention.
Survivors and relatives of those murdered at the Nova festival attend a ceremony at the site commemorating one year since the Hamas-led attack, 7 October 2024
This law to establish a special military tribunal comes after the Knesset passed separate legislation on March 30, now in effect in the occupied West Bank, that effectively mandates the death penalty for those convicted of killing an Israeli citizen or resident “with the intent of rejecting the existence of the State of Israel or the authority of the military commander.” In other words, Palestinians resisting military occupation will be subject to the law, and not Jewish Israelis.
Carving out special criminal justice mechanisms that apply only to Palestinians is blatant discrimination, allowing persecution of one group while protecting the other. That is the same logic underlying the judicial system in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried in military courts while Israeli settlers enjoy the superior due process protections of Israeli criminal law.