Haaretz
‘I’m not the justice minister, I’m not the police minister, and I don’t know all criminal acts committed here, but as defense minister I know some of the crimes, and I must say the situation is frightening in two areas, i.e. acts of murder and acts of rape against Arabs.’
So declared Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion in 1951 before dropping a bombshell: ‘People in the General Staff tell me, and it’s my view as well, that until a Jewish soldier is hanged for murdering Arabs, these acts of murder won’t end.’
Ben-Gurion was speaking at a cabinet meeting on abolishing the death penalty. Jewish-Arab tensions were high following the 1948 War of Independence, and there was also a problem with infiltrators, i.e. Arab refugees seeking to return to the homes and fields from which they were driven by Israel during the war.
Consequently, Jewish murders of Arabs had proliferated, and some ministers considered the death penalty necessary to solve this problem.
‘In general, those who have guns use them,’ Ben-Gurion asserted, adding that Israelis think that ‘Jews are people but that Arabs aren’t, so you can do anything to them, and with many believing it’s a mitzvah (religious commandment) to kill Arabs and that it’s actually a blessing to kill them, and as long as they think that, the murders won’t stop.’
Ben-Gurion openly admitted that he too would prefer fewer Arabs, but not at the price of publicly-known acts of deliberate murder. ‘If this continues, soon we won’t be able to show our face to the world after it becomes known that Jews murder innocent Arabs simply for being Arabs.’
The cabinet first discussed abolishing the death penalty – a legacy of the British Mandate – in July 1949, at the urging of Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen. Ben-Gurion was dubious even then. He said he would support the bill, but was almost certain that the death penalty would ultimately be reinstated, because he believed that abolishing it would ‘lead to a proliferation of Jews murdering Arabs.’
After intense debate, the cabinet agreed to abolish the death sentence except for treason during a state of emergency.
The bill then went to the Knesset, where the Constitution Committee held lengthy deliberations. A year later, Rosen presented the cabinet with a problem: Seven prisoners were on death row, but their executions were being delayed until the Knesset made up its mind about the death penalty.
As the cabinet discussed this issue, Ben-Gurion stunned his colleagues by saying he no longer supported abolishing the death penalty, primarily due to an increase in killings of Arabs by Jews.
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, who in 1949 had supported abolishing the death penalty on the grounds that ‘Human society must aspire to a moral level at which it’s forbidden to take human life,’ also unexpectedly reversed himself at this meeting.
‘With great regret I’ve become convinced that abolishing the death penalty is inconceivable,’ he announced, noting that even countries ‘which are immeasurably more humane than we are – I’ve spent years there and I live here – maintain the death penalty.’
The main reason for his U-turn, however, was ‘the crimes that have happened and are happening week after week, especially in the army,’ including some that weren’t public knowledge. Sociopaths might not be deterred by the death penalty, Sharett admitted, ‘because the Jew who murders Arabs in cold blood is a killer by nature and won’t fear the death penalty.’
Some Jews, Sharett said, think ‘every Arab is a dog, a wild dog that it’s a mitzvah to kill, as long as we don’t have it, these murders will continue and it will create a problem with how Israel is perceived by the world’.
‘I’ve giving a speech of repentance and confession here,’ he continued. ‘I’ve learned from experience that in this country, the death penalty is necessary… We made a mistake when we stopped hanging… If all the crimes committed in this country were reported, terror would grip the public and lynchings would start.’
Sharett then described one case in which three Arabs were murdered and a fourth saved only because a Jew threw him into a hut, and another case in which two Indian Jews were almost massacred by fellow Jews who thought they were Arabs until they shouted ‘Israel.’
Minister Dov Yosef backed Ben-Gurion and Sharett. ‘In principle, I’ve opposed hanging as a penalty all my life, but unfortunately, in this country and today’s situation,’ it’s needed, he said.
Minister Haim-Moshe Shapira concurred, saying he was especially horrified by group killings. He cited one in which ‘eight soldiers were present at the time of the murder. Surely they didn’t all murder, but they were all present at the time of the crime and not one member of this group stopped the crime.’
‘There have been worse cases,’ Ben-Gurion responded.
Ministers Golda Myerson (later Meir) and David Remez, in contrast, remained opposed to the death penalty, but agreed that for the sake of Israel’s public image much more must be done to prevent crimes against Arabs.
In the end, the death penalty was abolished – but only three years later, in 1954.