(JEWISH GROUP) If Israel reinstates the death penalty, it will betray Jewish values -- and Jewish history

THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP!

The Knesset is considering a bill that would instate the death penalty as a punishment for convicted terrorists in Israel. Passing it would be an enormous mistake.

Allowing executions in the Jewish state — the justice system of which has, since 1954, only issued that punishment to Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann — would only give fodder to Israel’s enemies. Right now, Israel stands apart in the Middle East for its abolishment of the death penalty. Hamas regularly executes Palestinians in Gaza, extrajudicially and otherwise. A court operating under Yemen’s Houthi rebels recently sentenced 17 people to death for allegedly spying on behalf of Israel and others. Iran, which has carried out death sentences against Jews, has executed more than 1,500 people in 2025 alone.

Which means that if Israel violates its moral obligations and ethical standards by undoing its historic commitment to not inflicting the one punishment that can never be undone, it will be giving its enemies a gift.

First, changing the justice system to allow for the death penalty would provide Hamas terrorists incarcerated in Israel with a new platform for their message. Hamas could proclaim them to be martyred heroes — a new layer of disingenuous but effective propaganda.

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I don't care how "others will view it", because anti-Israel bigots and anti-Semites will demonize Israel and Jews no matter what, but I see this bill as bigoted and as a violation of Jewish and democratic principles. While I sometimes find myself not bothered by the death penalty because of certain crime/perpetrator, at my core, I think it is something no state should EVER enact.