Supreme Court could overturn death penalty law

Accusation of discrimination

Expert: Supreme Court could overturn death penalty law

A new law in Israel requires military judges to impose the death penalty for terrorists – but an expert sees serious flaws. Why Israel’s highest court could intervene.

A legal expert predicts that Israel’s highest court could overturn the controversial law introducing the death penalty for terrorists. The Israeli parliament approved the law with a narrow majority on Monday. Palestinians who are convicted of a terrorist-motivated murder in military courts in the occupied territories therefore face the death penalty, which judges must impose in such a case.

According to Amir Fuchs from the Israeli Democracy Institute, this is precisely what creates a legal problem. “There is no such thing in any democratic legal system: a death penalty that is mandatory,” Fuchs told the Israeli TV station N12. “There must always be some discretion for the court or the prosecutor when applying for a sentence,” he said.

For him, the new law is one of “the things that courts usually overturn.” Even in democratic states with the death penalty, such as the USA, there is no compulsory death penalty. Even with the death penalty for Nazi criminals currently in force in Israel, execution is the maximum punishment, but not mandatory.

The new law is aimed exclusively against terrorists who attack Jews, Fuchs explained. According to him, this provision would not stand up to judicial review on grounds of discrimination. Immediately after the law was passed, the Israeli Civil Rights Association filed a lawsuit against it with the highest court.

Representatives of the opposition had accused the right-wing religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of knowingly and unnecessarily damaging Israel’s international reputation with the law – even though they also knew that the highest court would most likely overturn it.