ISRAEL: DEATH PENALTY BILL PASSES PRELIMINARY KNESSET VOTE

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Death Penalty Bill passed its first reading in the Knesset, winning a narrow majority of 52 in favor to 49 against.
The law, which Liberman has been promoting for months, would allow military courts to impose the death penalty on terrorists by a vote of two out of three judges, instead of the current requirement of the unanimous votes of all three judges on a military tribunal.
Ministers Naftali Bennett, Uri Ariel and Yoav Galant, as well as the UTJ MKs, were absent from the vote.