Last week, the Knesset's National Security Committee debated a bill mandating the death penalty for terrorists for the second and third votes in the Knesset.
Representatives of the Israel Medical Association have also been invited to the debate, to present the position of the medical community on the bill, which mandates that the "sentence will be carried out by the Israel Prison Service, by lethal injection."
Dr. Alberto Olchovski of the association's central committee read the organization's position that "Israeli doctors are entirely banned from taking active or passive part in executions – including [giving] fitness evaluations, involvement in injections, monitoring vital signs or giving technical assistance."
The position paper further stated: "The participation of physicians in executions is morally reprehensible at every stage, including planning or instruction. The decision stresses that use of medical knowledge for purposes other than promoting health and welfare undermine medicine's ethical foundations."
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his colleague Limor Son Har-Melech interrupted Olchovski. They seemingly asked him a question but showed little interest in his answer. After he attempted several times to answer them, committee chairman Tzvika Foghel asked Olchovski to leave the room.
Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), second from left, at a National Security Committee at the Knesset, in November.Credit: Oren Ben Hakoon
While the medical association's Ethics Board took a clear stance regarding the practical aspect of physicians' participation in executions, the position paper avoided the principle at stake: opposition to the death penalty. As Minister Ben-Gvir said: "If the execution is done by hanging – the doctors won't object."
In most Western democracies, the death penalty has been abolished by law and by constitution. The European Union bans the death penalty as a precondition for membership in it, as do Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It has also been completely abolished in most Latin American countries.
Israel is seeking to join a questionable list of countries, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, topped by China (though data about it is kept secret). It also includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Singapore and some U.S. states.
Opposition to the death penalty, by law and in practice, is born of the realization that taking life by the state is immoral, does not deter crime any better than other penalties and is irreversible in cases of judicial error. A progressive justice system must protect human lives and must be predicated on rehabilitation, responsibility and protection of human rights.
The professional duty of medical teams is predicated on the values of the sanctity of life, of not harming a patient and of preventing suffering – principles that lie at the basis of medical work in every morally regulated system. Punishment by death goes against our essence as healthcare providers and as guardians of life.
It is incongruent with the code of ethics that compels us to see every human being – regardless of his or her deeds – as a human entity who is entitled to health and life. As was said in the actual debate, the medical association's moral duty is to ban physicians from taking part in any stage of the execution. The debate about the physician's duty to provide physical and mental health must not be normalized and applied to a person that the state plans to put to death.
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The fear that overwhelmed us in Israel after that terrible Saturday of October 7, together with the wish to take back control of our lives, as well as the natural urge to take revenge, have resulted in reactions that would have been unacceptable under normal conditions. However, a state and a society seeking to thrive must not be run on fear or the urge to take vengeance. Acting on these impulses results in the moral collapse that is evident in this bill.
"I know the pain of those who survive, believe me," said Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, a diehard opponent of the death penalty. "I know… Your wound is open. It will remain. You are mourning, and how can I not feel the pain of your mourning? But death is not the answer."
Wiesel, whose parents and sister were murdered by the Nazis, added that murderers must be punished more harshly than other prisoners, but reiterated, "Death is not the answer."
Israeli medical teams, led by the medical association, must speak out clearly against the death penalty, which is distancing Israel further from most of the democratic, human rights' supporting world and fundamentally contradicts our duty as caregivers. We must recognize and preserve the right to health and life of every human being, regardless of his or her actions.
The writers are physicians and the opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to them.