The bill was brought forward by the ultranationalist party Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit), whose leader Itamar Ben-Gvir has long advocated for the death penalty.
The law means that anyone deemed to have committed a “nationalistically motivated murder” can be sentenced to death. In practice, this means that Palestinians imprisoned for murder in Israel can be executed. However, the law is not applicable to Israelis who kill Palestinians.
According to the text of the law, courts can decide to sentence a defendant even if the prosecutor in the case has not requested it. Nor is it necessary for all judges to agree to sentence the defendant to death.
Appeals to the Supreme Court
In Monday night's vote, 62 members voted yes, 48 voted no and one member abstained. Israel can now theoretically apply the new legislation to all territories it controls in practice, which includes the West Bank and just over half of the Gaza Strip.
Shortly after the vote, however, several Israeli human rights organizations announced they would appeal the parliament's decision to the country's Supreme Court.
Stenergard condemns
The bill was given the green light in its first reading in the Knesset in November last year.
On Sunday, Britain, Germany, Italy and France warned against allowing the proposal to become law.
"We are particularly concerned that the bill is in practice discriminatory in nature," the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement.
Sweden also joined the condemnation, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) wrote in a post on X.
The death penalty has long been a possible punishment under Israeli law. However, it only applies to crimes such as high treason, genocide and crimes against humanity and has only been carried out twice, the last time being when "Architect of the Holocaust" Adolf Eichmann was hanged in 1962.
