Reports: Israel to make death penalty for 'terrorists' easier

Tel Aviv (dpa) - Israeli lawmakers have taken a first step toward allowing the death penalty for "terrorists," passing a draft law in the Knesset by 51 to 49 votes on Wednesday that would ease restrictions on capital punishment.The aim of the legislation is to allow military courts to hand down the death penalty for murder when two out of three judges agree, the Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media reported. Previously the decision had to be unanimous."Whoever holds a knife, murders and laughs deserves to die," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by ynet news as saying. "He doesn‘t deserve to live." In order to become law, the draft has to make it through three more readings in parliament.In Israel proper, the death penalty can only be given for treason, not death. In the Palestinian Territories, military courts can hand down the death penalty in cases of murder with a terrorist background.The draft law aims to halt the possibility of the death penalty being commuted to life in prison or of the person being pardoned.The European Union has condemned the law. "The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity," the EU mission in Israel tweeted on Wednesday. "It constitutes inhuman & degrading treatment, does not have any proven deterrent effect & allows judicial errors to become irreversible & fatal."Israel has only applied the death penalty once: when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged in 1962.