The Knesset National Security Committee on Sunday approved sending a bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists to the Knesset plenum for a first reading.
Opponents of the bill said it could harm the chances of reaching a hostage deal.
After a heated discussion attended by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), the committee members voted 4-1 to approve it for a first reading. The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv voted against.
Ben-Gvir said members of the Prime Minister’s Office had requested that the meeting to advance the bill be postponed, but he refused.
“Associates of the prime minister approached me to postpone the discussion, because this is not the right time,” he said. “My answer is a firm no. This law is urgent.”
Ben-Gvir said he believed the bill would have the opposite effect and advance a hostage deal.
“Precisely at this time, [the Hamas terrorists] need to know that if even a single hair of a hostage is harmed, there will be a death sentence,” Ben-Gvir told the committee.
Gal Hirsch opposes the vote entirely
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing in the Prime Minister’s Office, said his objection to Ben-Gvir represented the stance of the Prime Minister’s Office and the hostages’ families.
“I am here to represent the hostages and their families,” he said at the meeting.
“I requested not to allow this conversation to take place,” Hirsch said, adding that he completely disagreed with the assessment that going ahead with the bill would help return the hostages.
After the vote, Hirsch said he had asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to bring the vote to the plenum until a thorough discussion is held in the cabinet, where he would “be able to present the full picture” along with his assessment.
Kariv vehemently disagreed with advancing the bill and was forcefully removed from the meeting by Ben-Gvir.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Kariv shouted as he was being taken out of the meeting.
“Under Ben-Gvir’s direction, the National Security Committee held an illegal vote, contrary to the position of the Knesset legal adviser and in explicit disregard of the request of the security establishment, the hostages directorate, and the prime minister himself,” Kariv said in a statement after the meeting.
“This was an illegal vote and a cynical, disgraceful maneuver that places political needs above the lives of the hostages,” he said. “Once again, it turns out that in the coalition and the government – the extremists – are the ones setting the agenda.”
Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel, the chairman of the National Security Committee, said the decision to send the bill to the plenum was a historic moment.
The bill stipulates that “a terrorist who murdered an Israeli civilian motivated by racism or hostility toward the public, with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in their land – his punishment shall be death and nothing else,” he said.
“Whoever comes to murder Jews out of hatred for the State of Israel will pay with his life,” Fogel said. “There will be no more hotels for terrorists; no more release deals. This is a first and significant step toward creating real deterrence and justice for the victims.”
After the vote, Ben-Gvir said: “The death penalty law is not only a moral and just step; it’s also critical to the state’s security.”
“This is how you fight terrorism,” he said. “This is how you create deterrence.”
If the bill’s first reading in the Knesset passes, it will return for discussions in committee meetings. The bill will then still need to pass a second and third reading in the plenum before it can become law.
The Knesset plenum is on summer recess until October 19.