Initiators: Nava Poker (Likud) and two others
Bill No. 5105/20/F
Nova Poker, Yoav Kish, and David Bitan (all MKs for the Likud party), proposed a bill that provides for amending Article 96 of the Penal Law of 1977. The amendment allows that capital punishment or indefinite imprisonment for life be imposed on Arab Palestinian combatants if they carry out operations, which result in the killing of Israelis.
Prospects of the bill:
The bill was submitted 12 days after the Knesset had approved in the preliminary reading another which amends the Law on Military Courts. Accordingly, capital punishment can be prescribed by a majority vote of three judges, rather than by consensus of the court panel.
Approved in the preliminary reading, the law has sparked wide-ranging opposition by the professional apparatus of the Public Prosecution, Ministry of Justice, as well as local and international human rights organisations. Nevertheless, the bill initiated by the Likud MKs further expands prescription of the death sentence, which does not generally apply to criminal cases or settler crimes perpetrated against Palestinians. According to the status which has arisen after the bill had been approved in the preliminary reading, the prospects of enacting the bill into a law remains mediocre in the current Knesset session.
