Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday paid a condolence visit to the family that lost three of its members in a gruesome terrorist attack in Samaria last week, and said he believes the terrorist should receive the death penalty. Last Friday night, Hamas sympathizer Omar al-Abed, 19, from the Ramallah-adjacent village of Kaubar, stabbed Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya, 46, and son Elad, 36, to death in Yosef's home in Halamish. Yosef's wife, Tova, 68, was wounded in the attack. Abed was shot and wounded by an off-duty soldier and is in the defense establishment's custody. He is expected to be tried in a military court, as the military judiciary hears most terrorism-related cases. "It's time we pursued capital punishment for terrorists. It can be done under the law and the judges have to render a unanimous decision, but they also want to know where the government stands," Netanyahu said. "My position as prime minister is that, in a case like this, involving a heinous murderer, the death penalty should apply." Israel abolished capital punishment for murder in 1954. The option of imposing capital punishment for acts of terrorism technically still exists under the law, but it has never been used. Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz echoed the demand and said he plans to introduce the issue during next week's cabinet meeting. "The Israeli government has to sent a clear message of deterrence, of exhausting the legal recourse opposite anyone who murders Israelis or incites to murder. Justice has to be seen to be done," he said. Netanyahu's remarks were criticized by the opposition members, who warned his rhetoric could further inflame Palestinian unrest.
Meretz MK Ilan Gilon said that "Netanyahu is doing so poorly in the polls that once he heard the bloodthirsty choir calling for the terrorist's execution he joined it. The death penalty is a dangerous method of punishment that goes against all humanistic principles. Populism must not dictate Israel's agenda and cause an unprecedented flare-up in Jewish-Arab relations."
Several ministers demanded last week that Abed face the death penalty for the Salomons' murder, including Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, fellow party member Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Welfare and Social Services Minister Haim Katz (Likud).
"Capital punishment is an option in military courts. There is no need for legislation, we just have to ask for it. I call on the Military Prosecution to demand the death penalty for the terrorist who murdered the Salomon family," Bennett said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said that "the demand for capital punishment for terrorists is not political populism, but a moral obligation. They [the terrorists] should know that if they are not killed in real time, they will be tried in Israeli courts and sentenced to death."