ISRAEL’S parliament began a debate today on a Bill that would make the death penalty the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.

The Bill’s passage would be a victory for Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the religious party that introduced the legislation.

Opponents of the legislation call it racist, draconian and unlikely to deter attacks by Palestinian militants. 

The legislation calls for the death penalty to go into effect within 30 days, though rights groups are expected to petition Israel’s Supreme Court against it.

In the lead-up to the vote, Mr Ben-Gvir has pinned a small noose to his lapel, a reference to the Bill’s execution method of choice.

“With God’s help, we will fully implement this law and kill our enemies,” he said after the Bill received approval to be brought to a final vote, adding it was “the most important law” to be approved by parliament in recent years.

Critics say the Bill establishes a hierarchy between Israeli court systems that will confine the death penalty to Palestinians convicted of murdering Jewish citizens of Israel.

The Bill instructs military courts to mete out the sentence to those convicted of murdering an Israeli “as an act of terror.” 

Such courts try only West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens. 

Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Centre for Democratic Values and Institutions, said the Bill “will apply in territories with military courts, which are Palestinian courts. It will apply in Israeli courts, but only to terrorist activities that are motivated by the wish to undermine the existence of Israel. That means Jews will not be indicted under this law,” he said.

Mr Cohen added that under international law, Israel’s parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory.