Once in Israel’s history… Ben Gvir’s announcement brings “execution” back to the forefront.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has relaunched the debate on the application of the death penalty in Israel: although Israeli law allows its application in some cases, in practice Israel has only applied it once since the founding of the state in 1948.

The Minister of National Security announced that a Knesset committee will discuss the draft law on the implementation of the death penalty against “terrorists”, before presenting it for first reading in the Knesset General Assembly.

The Israeli minister wrote on Platform X on Saturday evening that the Knesset’s national security committee will discuss the bill next Monday.

Israel prides itself in international forums on using “moderation” in the sense of not using the death penalty, and has consistently voted in favor of UN resolutions related to stopping the implementation of this punishment,” according to Israeli researcher Ron Dodai, of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Ben Gurion University.

However, right-wing politicians have long pushed for the passage of a law imposing the death penalty for those who carry out terrorist attacks, but these attempts have failed due to a lack of sufficient support and legal problems, according to The Times of Israel .

After the attack that targeted a synagogue in Jerusalem last January, Ben Gvir promised that anyone who killed or injured civilians would be sent to the electric chair and promised to present a bill to implement the death penalty against “terrorists” in Israel.

Last March the Israeli Parliament approved, in preliminary reading, a bill imposing the death penalty on “terrorists”.

In January 2018, the Knesset approved, in preliminary reading, a bill allowing the implementation of punishment against people convicted of murder in attacks classified as “terrorist”. The proposal was put forward by the then Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who belongs to the right-wing nationalist movement.

The Knesset abolished the death penalty for murder in criminal cases in 1954. But in theory it still approves it for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, high treason or crimes against the Jewish people, according to Agence France- Press.

The only case of execution carried out in Israel dates back to 1962, and was against the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, considered one of the planners of the Holocaust.

The US Department of Justice says the penalty was abolished in 1954 for “humanitarian, liberal and progressive” considerations, but the death penalty is available for murder under the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Act and the Genocide Act. Courts may impose other sanctions in these cases under certain circumstances.

The Times of Israel states that in theory the law allows the imposition of the death penalty in cases of high treason, as well as in certain circumstances under military law enforced by the Israeli army in the West Bank, but this is not enforced.

Ron Dudai, of Ben Gurion University, says that after occupying Palestinian lands in 1967, Israel announced that military courts set up there could impose the death penalty.

But since then the policy of all subsequent governments has been to avoid implementing it. Behind this policy were two main sources of restraint: first, the security establishment’s view that executions would have no deterrent effect and were likely to lead to an escalation of violence, and second: concern that the imposition and implementation of the death penalty would harm the Israeli community. international position.

Duday explains that calls from right-wing politicians to apply the death penalty to Palestinians have long been part of public discourse in Israel.

Bills aimed at changing the sanctions enforcement policy have been proposed several times, but so far the situation has not changed.