[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 31



ISRAEL:

Yisrael Beytenu Delivers with Terrorist Death Penalty Bill----Campaign promise 
acted on immediately in new bill to have Arab terrorists executed; 'it is clear 
to all this law must pass.'



Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu lost absolutely no time in fulfilling its 
campaign pledge of a death penalty for Arab terrorists, with the party's MK 
Sharon Gal submitting a bill on the subject even as the 20th Knesset was sworn 
in on Tuesday.

While Israel already has a death penalty on the law books, it has only been 
implemented once in the case of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, who was put to 
death back in 1962.

The new bill would alter the law, requiring that those found guilty of murder 
for terrorist reasons be executed.

In addition, the bill includes a clause specifying that those murdering Israeli 
civilians through terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria - which remains 
under martial law given that Israel has yet to annex the region following its 
liberation in the 1967 Six Day War - will also be liable to the death penalty.

Currently only a unanimous vote in Judea and Samaria military courts can lead 
to a death penalty, a result that has yet to be recorded. Instead the new law 
would require only a majority to rule the death penalty, and likewise it will 
prevent the regional IDF commander from being able to lighten the sentence.

Just last Thursday an Arab terrorist who murdered 25-year-old Dalia Lemkos was 
let off without a death sentence in the military courts, receiving instead 2 
life sentences.

"We promised, and we are determined to deliver," said Gal, the MK behind the 
new law. "We have to change the reality and eradicate terrorism. The death 
penalty law will strengthen Israeli deterrence - it is moral and ethical to 
legislate it to preserve the lives of our citizens. This has wide support among 
the people - it is clear to all that this law must pass."

In an effort to address the situation whereby Arab terrorists sit in jail in 
privileged conditions before being released in terror swaps, such as the 2011 
Shalit deal that saw 1,027 terrorists go free, in the last coalition Jewish 
Home initiated a "life without parole" law that was passed last November.

However, Meir Indor, head of the Almagor terror victims organization, revealed 
to Arutz Sheva last year that the law is "practically ineffective." One of the 
key flaws he pointed out is that it doesn't address terrorists sentenced in 
military courts in Judea and Samaria, where the majority of attacks and 
concurrent trials occur.

Another shortcoming he noted was that the law didn't apply retroactively to 
terrorists who were already sentenced prior to its passage, and that it leaves 
it up to the judge's discretion whether or not to sentence a terrorist without 
chance of parole.

(source: Israel National News)