Entries tagged with “Israel”
May 14, 2026
Israel’s New Law Allows for Publicized Death Penalty Trials for Palestinians Charged with October 7th Attacks
On May 11, 2026, lawmakers in Israel passed legislation by a vote of 93 – 0 creating a special tribunal within the military justice system with the authority to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of involvement in the October 7, 2023, attacks. The legislation provides that proceedings will be conducted in Jerusalem with a publicly available livestream. The new tribunal will have the authority to charge approximately 300 detained Palestinians…
Apr 06, 2026
Israel Passes Mandatory Death Penalty for Palestinians Convicted of Terrorism, Flouting International Law and Drawing Widespread Condemnation
On March 30, 2026, lawmakers in Israel passed the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law by a vote of 62 to 48, making Israel one of few democracies to expand capital punishment in recent years. The law mandates death by hanging for offenses classified as“terrorism related” — and as written, applies exclusively to Palestinians. The new law also requires that sentences must be carried out within 90 days of a final ruling. UN experts have warned that under international…
Issues
Jan 24, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Yemen
The University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, in collaboration with several human rights nonprofits, recently launched a database of foreign nationals sentenced to death or executed from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 in Asia and the Middle East. They found that Saudi Arabia leads the Middle East in sentencing foreign nationals to death (385 people) and drug-trafficking (283), closely followed by murder (257), are the top crimes for which foreign…
Issues
Dec 06, 2023
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Somalia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe
On November 7, Chinese media reported that former primary school principal Zhang Longji was executed via lethal injection for raping five girls, age 8 – 12, and sexually molesting 17 girls, age 8 – 14. Sun Deshun, former president of China CITIC Bank Corporation Limited, who was convicted of accepting $1 billion yuan ($137 million) in bribes, was given a suspended death sentence by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan on November 10. If no new crimes are…