Capital punishment in Israel

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In modern Israel, capital punishment is illegal in almost all circumstances. The death penalty was abolished in 1954 with the exceptions of conviction for treason during a time of war and genocide. Only one person has been civilly executed in the history of the modern State of Israel - Adolf Eichmann in 1962, after he was convicted in 1961 of participation in Nazi war crimes relating to the Holocaust. Others have been sentenced to death but won appeals to overturn the sentence.

Israel has a policy of extra-judicial targeted killing of Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied territories. The IDF has pursued these operations to prevent imminent terrorist attacks and to assassinate alleged terrorist leaders and planners.

It is generally accepted that one of the reasons for Israel's rare use of the death penalty is Jewish religious law. However, there is some debate as to whether Jewish law forbids capital punishment. Biblical law explicitly mandates the death penalty for 36 offenses, from murder and rape to idolatry and desecration of the Sabbath. Still, Jewish scholars since the beginning of the common era have developed such restrictive rules to prevent execution of the innocent that the death penalty has become de facto illegal. Most modern Jewish religious leaders and scholars believe that the death penalty should remain unused.

[edit] See also

Human rights in Israel
Religion and capital punishment

[edit] External links

• JewishEncyclopedia.com - CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
  
• Religious Action Center - Death Penalty