{"id":436937,"date":"2026-05-11T22:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/436937\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T22:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:45:08","slug":"knesset-passes-law-to-prosecute-october-7-terrorists-conduct-public-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/436937\/","title":{"rendered":"Knesset passes law to prosecute October 7 terrorists, conduct public trials"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knesset plenum passed on Monday, by a unanimous vote of 93 to 0, the final second and third readings on a bill to prosecute terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre<\/a>, granting authority to impose the death penalty<\/a> and conduct public trials for the perpetrators of the attacks at a Jerusalem military court.<\/p>\n

The decision came as the Knesset<\/a> opened its summer session on Sunday, following more than a month-long spring recess.<\/p>\n

The bill was sponsored by MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) and MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), in a rare case in which legislation is advanced and supported by both the coalition and the opposition.<\/p>\n

Coalition whip Ofir Katz said ahead of the vote that the coalition will vote in favor of the bill, and supports a reservation in the legislation, which stipulates that the terrorists will not be eligible for release as part of hostage deals.<\/p>\n

The legislation calls to regulate the prosecution of those who committed offenses as part of the October 7 massacre before a special military court seated in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Minister Yariv Levin, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), and MK Yulia Malinovsky hold joint press conference in Knesset ahead of upcoming vote on bill to publicly prosecute Oct. 7 terrorists, Sunday May 10, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)<\/p>\n

The trial\u2019s key moments, including the opening hearing, verdict, and sentencing, would be filmed and broadcast on a dedicated website.<\/p>\n

The legislation establishes provisions concerning judicial panels, public access to proceedings, audiovisual documentation of hearings, and the broadcasting of parts of the proceedings to the public.<\/p>\n

It further proposes establishing specific arrangements for the appointment of judges to the court, including sitting and retired judges.<\/p>\n

It calls for establishing special arrangements regarding victims\u2019 rights, legal representation for defendants, and the conduct of hearings via video conference.<\/p>\n

The legislation also proposes to create a special guard unit to secure the military court in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

It mandates administrative preparations for conducting the proceedings, periodic reporting to the Knesset, and the promulgation of regulations concerning the implementation of death sentences.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the bill includes provisions to preserve video and audio documentation of the trials in the State Archives.<\/p>\n

Bill needed to issue death penalty to October 7 terrorists<\/p>\n

While a bill was passed in March to legislate the death penalty for terrorists in Israel, it cannot be implemented retroactively, causing a separate bill to be required to issue the death penalty to terrorists involved in the October 7 attacks.<\/p>\n

Capital punishment<\/a> has only been carried out twice in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The last person to be executed by Israel was Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962.<\/p>\n

Malinovsky has likened the bill to the Eichmann trials in 1961, which broadcast live and recorded testimonies of Holocaust survivors throughout Israel and numerous other countries before Eichmann\u2019s hanging took place.<\/p>\n

During the October 7 massacre, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 hostages. The attacks also included sexual violence and rape.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a joint press conference on Sunday at the Knesset with Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Rothman, and Malinovsky, the three spoke on the importance of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Levin, who has pushed for the bill, said that, after the October 7 massacre, he had instructed \u201cthe immediate establishment of a working team whose purpose is to ensure that the terrorists and their accomplices are brought to trial and punished, and that justice is fully carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law regulates this, including full authority to impose the death penalty,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Malinovsky said that she had been advancing the legislation since immediately after the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, nearly three years later, we have reached the finish line, which is actually the starting line \u2013 the beginning of historic trials that the entire world will witness,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone will see how the State of Israel is a sovereign country that knows how to hold accountable those who harmed it. Everyone will see how the victims and their families look directly into the eyes of those murderers, rapists, and kidnappers,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Sam Halpern contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knesset plenum passed on Monday, by a unanimous vote of 93 to 0, the final second and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29365,181059,85,46,14406,43,58,49982],"class_list":["post-436937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-death-penalty","tag-death-penalty-for-terrorists-law","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-knesset","tag-news","tag-the-october-7-massacre","tag-yariv-levin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}