Thousands Sign Online Petition Against Israel’s Proposed Death Penalty Bill

We, the thousands of international members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” applaud and affirm our Israeli members and friends for the new online petition that Zazim recently disseminated against National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s proposed death penalty. In the days since this petition went live, it has already amassed over 5,000 signatures. Given that the petition is appropriately in Hebrew, L’chaim felt it would be appropriate to translate it here for our non-Israeli members worldwide.

The organization Zazim (meaning “we are moving,” or “let’s move”), constitutes the largest campaigning community in Israel, with more than 350,000 activities and activists. It is a civil movement of Arabs and Jews who together promote democracy, equality and active and participatory citizenship. Zazim is political – its campaigns deal with the most pressing issues on the public agenda and are designed to influence decision-makers. It is, however, non-partisan. Zazim is an independent movement, and what unites its members are shared values ​​of human rights and social and environmental justice.

Zazim’s petition is entitled: “No to the law of death!” Its contents, as translated below, are unambiguous in opposing the death penalty bill:

“We, citizens, oppose Ben Gvir’s racist death penalty bill and demand that the opposition raise its voice and oppose it on every platform and with all the tools at its disposal!”
Why is this important?

If we do not act now, we are partners and accomplices in the establishment of Ben-Gvir’s hanging state. The death penalty bill he is promoting will apply in the West Bank to a Palestinian who murders an Israeli as a mandatory sentence and without the possibility of mitigation. The bill was carefully drafted to create racism under the protection of the law: The death penalty will not apply, for example, to settlers who murder a Palestinian resident of the West Bank!

If we are pro-life, we must speak out against the death penalty bill – and demand that Yair Lapid and his opposition colleagues do the same. Right now, Lapid and the others are avoiding a clear position as the bill moves rapidly toward final approval in the Knesset. This is the last moment to make an impact.

The truth is, the bill has a majority in the Knesset because the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu supports it, along with the government. If that’s not enough, Lapid and the heads of the opposition factions have not declared sweeping opposition to the bill. But we have an opportunity: the Haredim are swinging, and we can and will influence Yesh Atid and some members of the “state camp.”

If we create enough noise, the government may decide it is better to postpone the vote on approving the law and avoid conflict.”

L’chaim members – by the very name of our organization – salute the this petition focus on the inviolability of life. In this sense, it reflects the Jewish Communal Statement Opposing the Death Penalty Bill in Israel that went public last week, which itself illustrates the immense scope of reputable Israeli and Jewish groups that are standing firmly against this legislation. That statement’s uplifting of the sanctity of life, in turn, builds upon the documented massive scale of rabbinic voices who already stand against the death penalty for this reason. “As members of a global Jewish community committed to Israel’s future,” the statement concludes, “we urge Israeli leaders to halt this legislation and to reaffirm values that have long guided Jewish life: the sanctity of human life and the dignity of every person.”

Indeed, if enacted, the death penalty bill currently before the Israeli Knesset would constitute a violation of arguably the most fundamental of all human rights: the right to life itself. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a foundational document of the United Nations, adopted in 1948, clearly established this human right. It is therefore logical that the United Nations Human Rights chief, Volker Türk, denounced Israel for its proposed legislation to execute Palestinians. Türk reminded Israel that “when it comes to the death penalty, the United Nations is obvious, and opposes it under all circumstances.”

Any nation that engages in the blatant human rights violation that is capital punishment inherently fails the litmus test for a civilized society. The latest iteration of Israel’s proposed death penalty bill for convicted terrorists is no exception. On the contrary, it only provides further evidence of how quickly any procedural safeguards and notions of humanitarian practices evaporate once a civilization opens itself to the veritable danse macabre of state-sponsored killing. Attorney Robert Dunham, Director of the Death Penalty Policy Project and former Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, encapsulated it best when he wrote that the current bill “is a walking human rights violation.”

There are numerous motivators for individuals and organizations advocating for death penalty abolition. Beyond the arguments centering on religion, racism, false deterrence, incitement of martyrs and inviolability of life that the Jewish communal statement cited above reflects, L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty has repeatedly outlined many other reasons for standing against capital punishment now, and always. These include the fact that executions always con­sti­tute tor­ture, risk execut­ing the inno­cent, and – from Adolf Hitler to Don­ald Trump to Ben-Gvir – have been used as a polit­ical tool, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing elec­tion cam­paigns. L’chaim has also illus­trated how many exe­cu­tion meth­ods are dir­ect Nazi legacies, includ­ing fir­ing squad, gass­ing, and lethal injec­tion. Famed death pen­alty abol­i­tion­ist Elie Wiesel best artic­u­lated L’chaim’s stance when he said of cap­ital pun­ish­ment – in the shadow of the Holo­caust – that “death should never be the answer in a civ­il­ized soci­ety.” Members of the Knesset – and all death penalty proponents – should heed Wiesel’s mes­sage and the thousands of signatories of this online petition. They should recog­nize that executions are never the answer – and that Israel’s proposed death penalty bill should not be the answer now.

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