Australia’s peak Jewish groups have made a rare break with Israel to condemn a controversial law approving the hanging of Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, arguing it represents a disturbing departure from Jewish tradition.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman used an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday to defend the legislation, which was passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, this week.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Zionist Federation of Australia and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) – usually staunch defenders of Israel, including throughout the war in Gaza – said they had deep concerns about the law, which has been criticised by Australia and other like-minded nations.
“The Act applies differential standards based on nationality alone,” ECAJ said in a statement sent exclusively to this masthead on Wednesday.
“This falls well short of the principle of equal justice.”
The council said the campaign for the legislation in Israel – led by far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party – “represents a troubling departure from the principles that have guided Israeli law and Jewish tradition”.
“Capital punishment has not been practised under Jewish law for many centuries – a reflection of deeply held values about the sanctity of life and the limits of human judgment,” the council said.
Quoting the 12th-century rabbi Maimonides’ dictum that it is better to acquit a thousand guilty people than put a single innocent person to death, ECAJ said: “We trust that Israel’s Supreme Court will carefully scrutinise this legislation.”
The law, which passed the Knesset in a 62-48 vote, makes death by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings in the West Bank.
It gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges – language that legal experts say in effect confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.
ECAJ, regarded as the peak body of the Australian Jewish community, said it “stands in unwavering solidarity with the State of Israel and its people, who have endured grievous loss from terrorism and face ongoing security threats”.
But it said there is “no empirical evidence that the death penalty is a uniquely effective deterrent to terrorism, and there is no reason to believe it would deter followers of a death cult”.
Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said: “What concerns us is that this legislation creates parallel legal tracks that apply different standards depending on the nationality of the accused.”
Leibler said he understood the need to combat terrorism, but Jewish law taught “that when the state takes life, the moral cost falls on the entire society”.
“That cost is compounded when the law’s most severe penalty applies, in practice, to one population and not another,” he said.
He added that “we have confidence in the independence of Israel’s judiciary to examine this law against the values on which the state was founded”.
AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said he had “strong reservations” about the new law, arguing it represents a “grave and troubling departure from the values, norms and legal traditions that have long guided democratic nations, including Israel”.
Rubenstein said he understood Israelis’ desire to reduce incentives for groups like Hamas to take hostages and engage in terror, but said the bill was “not the answer” to these problems.
The Zionist Federation argued last year that Israel had a moral obligation to allow sufficient aid to enter the enclave amid global outrage over starvation in Gaza.
ECAJ branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “clumsy” and “inflammatory” last year when he labelled Albanese weak in a scathing social media post.
Ambassador Newman told the Press Club that the death penalty was required as an additional deterrent to Palestinian militants who hold “deranged” views about wanting to destroy Israel, as he rejected accusations Israel was practising apartheid in the West Bank.
“We reached a situation where you have terrorists on your border, terrorists crossing the border, attacking communities, and the usual punishment is no deterrent,” he said.
“We’re in a difficult neighbourhood … we have neighbours who are bent on the destruction of the state of Israel, who are bent on terrorism.
“So there are elements that might be necessary in a country like that, which are not necessary in a country where your neighbours are New Zealand and Fiji.”
Kate Rosenberg, executive director of the progressive New Israel Fund Australia, branded the law “a moral and legal disaster”, saying it “violates fundamental human rights, undermines Israel’s standing in the world, and gives extremist political actors unprecedented power over life-and-death decisions”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Labor caucus on Tuesday that Australia opposed the death penalty “in all instances”, pointing to a joint statement Australia signed alongside France, Germany, Italy and Britain that opposed the Israeli legislation.
“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill,” the joint statement said.
Amnesty International has argued the law “dismantles fundamental safeguards to prevent the arbitrary deprivation of life and protect the right to a fair trial, and further empowers Israel’s system of apartheid”.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.