27/05/2026
It is important to revisit the December 2025 op-ed by Att Yael Vias Gvirsman, written before the passage of Israel’s new death penalty law on 30 March 2026 — one of the most significant proposed shifts in Israeli criminal law in decades.
Rather than framing the issue purely in terms of punishment, the article examined what such legislation could mean for Israel’s legal system, democratic principles, and long-term social resilience.
The central argument was that introducing a sweeping or near-mandatory death penalty for terrorism offenses would not strengthen Israeli society or deter terrorism, but will instead cause profound moral, legal, and security-related harm.
The op-ed emphasized that justice requires judicial discretion and individualized responsibility and maintaining fundamental human rights and due process. Even after mass atrocities, historical examples such as South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Nuremberg, and the Eichmann trial demonstrated the importance of careful adjudication rather than automatic or generalized executions.
Att. Yael Vias Gvirsman argued that the fundamental question is not whether certain crimes are horrific enough to deserve the harshest punishment, but whether irreversible punishment should ever become automatic, systematized or stripped of meaningful judicial restraint. Justice not Revenge should be the leading value.
The article ultimately focused on the broader values at stake for Israeli society after October 7, concluding with a reflection that remains deeply relevant:
“We should not be focusing on who to kill, but on who we want to be as a nation.”
Please find the link to the full op-ed here:�https://www.zman.co.il/647646/
