Israeli writer: This is how the prisoner execution law strengthens the extreme right policy

Israeli academic Ron Dudai said, in an article published in the Hebrew +972 magazine, that the law obligating the courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians represents a vindictive shift in state policies, with the aim of consolidating the rise of the radical right led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and removing the remaining restrictions on state violence.

The law stipulates that “a terrorist who kills an Israeli citizen for racist reasons or with the intention of harming the State of Israel and the Jewish people shall be sentenced to death.”

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The writer believes that the proposed law represents an extreme step even by current Israeli standards, as it creates a new crime that requires death, makes execution mandatory under vaguely defined conditions, and eliminates any role for the judiciary.

Its language is completely discriminatory and applies to Palestinians only, without including Jews who kill Palestinians. According to the article, Israeli MP Limor Son Har Melech said: “There is no such thing as a Jewish terrorist.”

The radical right aims to abandon the “pretense of self-restraint” and institutionalize the “spirit of revenge” that shaped Israel’s war on Gaza.

This statement – in the writer’s opinion – demonstrates the explicitly racist orientation of the law, which does not seek to achieve deterrence, but rather to establish the idea of ​​revenge and remove legal restrictions on institutional violence.

The Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) approved in the first reading a draft law allowing the issuance and implementation of death sentences on Palestinian resistance fighters based on a proposal from Ben Gvir’s “Otzma Yehudit” party and the “Israel Our Home” party, as part of the political struggle led by the right to control public space in Israel.

Clear transformation

The writer – a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben Gurion University – said that the vote did not cause a major uproar despite its conflict with international law that protects the right to life, noting that the discussion about the death penalty comes in light of the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past two years.

Duday stressed that the old establishment’s opposition to executions was “sheer hypocrisy”, due to the continuing extrajudicial killings. However, the issue of execution – even formally – was a red line.

Now, the extreme right aims to abandon the “claim of self-restraint” and institutionalize the “spirit of revenge” that shaped Israel’s war on Gaza, in the writer’s words.

The real goal

In his article, the writer focused on the fact that the real goal of the law is to consolidate the power of the right and weaken the power of state institutions and accountability.

This is part of the far-right’s plan to seize power. The project is part of the broader “judicial reform” agenda, and aims to consolidate power in the hands of Ben Gvir and his allies at the expense of the military and judicial establishment.

Consolidating the death penalty and its culture will turn Israel into a society “worse than it is,” crossing all red lines easily and without accountability.

In this regard, the writer pointed out that the law makes the death penalty mandatory, abolishes the judge’s authority to assess the penalty, and also withdraws from the army commander the authority to commute or replace the sentence in military courts.

Consequently, the law changes the balance of power and weakens the influence of traditional institutions – such as the army, the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet), and the judiciary – which paves the way for the rise of the power of the extreme right, according to the article.

Moral collapse

The writer expressed his concern that imposing the death penalty will create a “complete machine of violence” that includes who carries out the sentence, how to kill, and the functions associated with it. It may turn into a public spectacle and competition between politicians to show strength, which will lead to spreading a culture of celebrating violence in society.

He warned that implementing the death penalty would lead to an extreme sequence of laws, as it would become difficult to protect Palestinians from more severe measures, including stripping them of citizenship.

With the death penalty at the top of the pyramid – the author continues – the entire system will be restructured, and life imprisonment will no longer represent the upper limit of the state’s repressive power.

He also stressed that this policy will push Israel towards the “global tyranny club,” which, in the writer’s opinion, includes Iran, China, and North Korea, where death sentences are applied. This would increase Israel’s isolation from Europe, which currently defines itself as a “zone that does not accept the death penalty.”

The writer concluded that the law was “bloody revenge,” and warned that consolidating the death penalty and its culture would turn Israel into a society “worse than it is,” crossing all red lines easily and without accountability.