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Understanding Israel’s Death Penalty for Arabs Only Bill
As it stands, Israel has imposed the death penalty only once in its 78 year history: in 1962, on Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. A new bill in Knesset threatens to change that. It would establish the death penalty for Palestinians who kill Israelis—but not the other way around. The bill, cruel and overtly discriminatory at its core, represents one of the starkest examples to date of the racism that fuels Netanyahu’s coalition.
This program, presented as a collaboration of the Progressive Israel Network, will feature a line up of influential Israeli and American voices who have been tracking the bill closely, including Benzi Sykora, a front-line lobbyist and Policy Director at NIF grantee, Zulat; Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; and NIF’s own Director in Israel, Shira Ben Sasson-Furstenberg, a veteran leader of Israel’s civil society. Moderating the conversation will be Hadar Susskind, the CEO of New Jewish Narrative, and one of the most influential progressive advocates in the Jewish community.
Speakers:
Benzi Sykora is a front-line lobbyist who has been working on this and similar issues in the Knesset. Benzi is the Policy Director at Zulat, an Israeli think-do tank established to protect human rights, fight all forms of exclusion and discrimination, and steer the country toward democracy, freedom, and equality.
Shira Ben Sasson-Furstenberg is the Israel Director of the New Israel Fund. Shira is a veteran leader of Israel’s civil society with decades of experience guiding struggles for religious freedom, women’s rights, and democratic values.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and one of the leading moral voices of the American Jewish community.