The proposal will now go through three rounds of voting before it can be adopted, but the first hurdle was passed without major problems.
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.
If the law comes into force, anyone deemed to have committed a “nationalistically motivated murder” will be sentenced to death. In practice, this means that Palestinians imprisoned for murder in Israel can be executed. However, the law does not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians.
"Today we took a historic step towards true justice and a strengthened deterrent against terrorism," said Son Har-Melech of Jewish Power, according to The Times of Israel.
The proposal will now be refined in a committee before the Knesset votes on it again.
But Jewish Power leader and Israel's Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has already started celebrating and after Monday's yes, he handed out the sweet pastry baklava to parliamentarians, reports The Times of Israel .
The Knesset also voted on Monday to allow the government to close foreign media outlets operating in Israel, as it did with the news channel Al Jazeera, which was banned from broadcasting in the country last year – after a temporary special law, Haaretz reports.
Even the media law, which would make the “Al Jazeera law” permanently valid, must undergo three votes in order to be passed.
