The overall consequence is that through the DPT Law, Israel has adopted a general regime whereby it has a potentially active penal system with the death penalty in its two main operative legal systems which only applies to Palestinians and not to Jewish Israelis.

This is not an accident. It was the intention of the law, as evidenced by how it was justified by those who proposed and supported it, and more generally how it has been understood within Jewish Israeli society.

The law calls itself the “Death Penalty for Terrorists” law, but it is, actually, a law that effectively (in the case of the municipal offence) or directly (in the case of the military law regime offence) excludes Jewish Israelis who commit intentional killing meeting the definition of terrorism - Jewish settlers doing this in the West Bank, for example - from its coverage. If, then, one word is to be attached to this law, as far as the law’s own terms are concerned, that word cannot be “terrorists”.

In truth, the law should be entitled the “Death Penalty for Palestinians Law”.