Israel's Knesset will vote this week on a bill to create a death penalty for those convicted of killing Israeli citizens "out of racism or hostility to their group," the Jerusalem Post reports.
The bill, which was proposed by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, states that a person who "intentionally or out of indifference causes the death of an Israeli citizen when the act is carried out from a racist motive or hate to a certain public ... and with the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland," will be sentenced to death.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "We will continue taking action with all methods, on security in operational missions and in legislation, to deter terrorists and safeguard Israel's security. Our answer to terrorism is to strike terrorism forcefully and deepen our roots in our land."
Israel has carried out two executions in its history, once in 1948 and again in 1962. The first was Israeli army officer Meir Tobianski, who was falsely accused of espionage and posthumously exonerated, and the second was Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust.
The Knesset abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, but the sentence was kept for war crimes, crimes against humanity or the Jewish people, and treason.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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