HUMAN rights groups have slammed a decision by Israeli MPs to set up a special tribunal to try and possibly sentence to death Palestinians convicted of taking part in the October 7 2023 Hamas-led attack.

The measure passed with 93 votes in favour and none against in the 120-seat Knesset on Monday, with the remaining 27 MP either absent or abstaining.

Simcha Rothman, one of the Bill’s sponsors and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, said the overwhelming consensus in support of the legislation showed Israeli MPs can come together “around a common mission.”

But human rights groups say the measure makes the death penalty too easy to impose while also doing away with procedures safeguarding the right to a fair trial.

Several Israeli human rights groups, including Hamoked, Adalah and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said on Monday that while “justice for the victims of October 7 is a legitimate and urgent imperative,” any accountability for the crimes “must be pursued through a process which includes rather than abandons the principles of justice.”

Defendants can appeal against their sentences, but the cases have to be heard by a separate special appeals court, rather than regular appeals courts.

The Bill empowers a panel of judges to hand down the death penalty by a majority vote and requires the trials to be conducted in a livestreamed Jerusalem courtroom, drawing comparisons to the 1962 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, which was broadcast live on television.

Eichmann’s execution by hanging was the last time the death penalty was used in Israel, though technically capital punishment remains on the books for acts of genocide, espionage during wartime and certain terrorist offences.

Opponents of the Bill also say that livestreaming the proceedings before guilt is established risks turning the trials into a spectacle. They have raised questions about the reliability of the evidence that may be presented, saying it could have been extracted by harsh interrogation methods.

Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages during the October 7 assault by Hamas and its allies.

Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed over 72,628 Palestinians, including at least 846 since a ceasefire took hold last October.

The legislation is separate from a law passed in March that approved the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure blasted by the international community and human rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane.