Make no mistake, Israel's 'Death Penalty for Terrorists' Law is aimed at Palestinians Submitted by Ralph Wilde on Wed, 07/15/2026 - 13:58 The adoption of this law is a flagrant breach of the rights of Palestinian people and violates fundamental rules of international law Israeli forces demolish the home of Palestinian resident Osama Masaaf in the village of Al-Deirat, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, 14 July 2026 (Mosab Shawer/JNA Press) On Israel now has two new capital criminal offences on its books, through the adoption of the "Death Penalty for Terrorists Law" (DPT). One offence exists in Israeli municipal law, applicable in the territory Israel claims (in certain respects erroneously and illegally as a matter of international law) to be its sovereign territory: the territory of Mandatory Palestine within the 1949 "Green Line" plus East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights. Israeli municipal law can also be potentially enforced within this territorial space to cover acts performed outside it, notably the Palestinian Gaza Strip, and occupied parts of Lebanon and (in addition to the Golan Heights) Syria.
The other offence exists in the military legal system Israel operates (illegally as a matter of international law) in what it calls the "Area", meaning the Palestinian West Bank outside of East Jerusalem. The combined effect is the potential operation of a new capital offence regime across the entirety of Israel’s dominion over Mandatory Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights, as well as Israeli occupied parts of Lebanon and (in addition to the Golan Heights) Syria. Given the effective near-dormancy of the existing capital offences in both the municipal and military legal systems, the new capital offences created in each system by the DPT Law effectively amount to the main, general capital offence regime operated by Israel.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); A state that, effectively, did not have the death penalty, has now introduced it. Both capital offences cover intentional killing taking place in circumstances meeting the definition of "terrorism" in Israel’s 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law. The offence in municipal law has the additional element of “the aim of negating the existence of the State of Israel”.
As I explain in a new legal opinion for the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK, the existence and, if it happ…
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