Reflections on Israel legalising the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terrorism
As a preface: I do not have a strong opinion on the death penalty one way or the other, although I lean against it. The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to establish that regardless of where one stands on the issue, Western hysteria surrounding Israel’s policy change re: the death penalty is excessive and intellectually dishonest, and (2) to highlight some issues with Israel’s policy on the issue.
It is important to realise that the 250 hostages that Hamas captured on 7 October 2023 were traded for thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons including people who had committed terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. The hostage-to-terrorist ratio was extraordinarily high: on 15 October 2025 for example Hamas traded 24 Israeli hostages for over 2000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 prisoners serving life sentences for acts of terrorism: https://www.nbcnews.com/…/joyous-scenes-israelis…
For example, Muhammad Aref Samhan was released after murdering 23 civilians in a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem in 2003. I suspect many of the people currently in fits of hysteria over Israeli policy would feel differently in the shoes of Micah Avi, who is the son of one of Samhan’s victims and who spoke to the media about his experiences having to watch his father walk free.
Another example is that Yahya Sinwar (who was serving four life sentences at the time for terrorism offences) was notoriously released in 2011 as part of a hostage deal whereby 1027 Palestinian prisoners including people who were serving sentences for terrorism offences were swapped for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Yahya Sinwar then became the leader of Hamas in Gaza and orchestrated the mass rape, torture and murder of Israeli civilians on October 7 2023. That is the problem with releasing mass murderers.
Thus, Israel’s policy to date of imprisoning people convicted of terrorist offences has meant that Hamas has incentive to kidnap more Israelis to swap them for prisoners in Israeli prisons. Regardless of where you stand on the death penalty, I think it is important to understand that context to the recent law change. It’s easy to take the moral high ground when you’re living in Aotearoa and not surrounded by maniacs like Hamas who hate you and want to kill you.
However, the flip side of this coin is that I am concerned that if Palestinians convicted of terrorism offences are swiftly executed, that denies the individuals concerned the opportunity to appeal. Due process including the right to appeal is a human right. If Palestinians are kept on death row while appealing convictions for terrorism, then the impetus for Hamas to kidnap Israelis appears to remain in place. It could I suppose be argued that even if someone spends a few years on death row that is shorter than spending many decades serving out a life sentence, and therefore the motivation for Hamas to abduct people is reduced somewhat.
Nevertheless, I find it grossly hypocritical of Israel’s critics in the West to go into fits of hysteria over Israel’s policy in this regard (I have seriously heard Netanyahu compared with Hitler) without criticising Hamas (or any number of Middle Eastern paradises) for having the death penalty. It is intellectually dishonest and contemptible to the nth degree to criticise Israel for executing terrorists who blow up school buses when the same people have never in their lives before criticised (say) Saudi Arabia or Iran for executing LGBTQI+ people for gay sex.
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