(February 26, 2023 / JNS) The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted on Sunday to advance a bill that would allow courts to impose capital punishment for certain terrorist offenses.
Under the proposed law, the death penalty could be applied when the victim is killed because of a “racist motive or hatred for a certain public” and with “the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland.”
The move comes on the same day that a terrorist claimed the lives of two Jewish civilians in Samaria.
“We have now passed the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation together with the Minister @itamarbengvir,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.
“We will continue to act by all means, through defense, operational activity and legislation, to deter the terrorists and maintain Israel’s security. Our answer to terrorism is to hit terrorism hard and deepen our roots in our country,” he added.
Minister of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit Party demanded the legislation as a condition for joining the government, tweeted:
“On this difficult day when two Jews were murdered in a shocking terrorist attack, there is nothing more symbolic than the passing of a death penalty law for terrorists. Terrorism is vanquished on offense and not on defense and we will fight with all the tools at our disposal,” he said.
העברנו עכשיו בוועדת שרים את חוק עונש מוות למחבלים של עוצמה יהודית. ביום הקשה הזה בו נרצחו שני יהודים בפיגוע טרור מזעזע, אין יותר סמלי מהעברת חוק עונש מוות למחבלים. טרור מנצחים במתקפה ולא במגננה ונילחם בכל הכלים העומדים לרשותנו.
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) February 26, 2023
On Sunday, two brothers, Hillel Menachem Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, 20, were gunned down while driving through the Arab village of Huwara on Route 60. The terrorist reportedly approached their car and fired at them with a handgun from point-blank range.
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