The bill was brought forward by the ultranationalist party Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit), whose leader Itamar Ben-Gvir has long advocated for the death penalty.
The law means that anyone deemed to have committed murder "with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel" can be sentenced to death, which in practice means it would apply only in cases involving Palestinians.
According to the text of the law, courts can decide to sentence a defendant to death even if the prosecutor in the case has not requested it. It is also not necessary for all judges to agree to impose the death penalty.
The sentence will then be carried out within 90 days and those sentenced will be held in separate units without the possibility of receiving visits except from authorized personnel. Legal advice may only be provided via video link.
Appeals to the Supreme Court
In Monday night's vote, 62 members voted yes, 48 no, and one member abstained. Israel can now, in theory, apply the new legislation to all territories it controls in practice, including the West Bank and just over half of the Gaza Strip.
Shortly after the vote, however, several Israeli human rights organizations announced that the parliament's decision would be appealed to the country's Supreme Court.
Stenergard condemns
The bill was given the green light in a first reading in the Knesset in November last year.
On Sunday, Britain, Germany, Italy and France warned against allowing the proposal to become law.
"We are particularly concerned that the bill is in practice discriminatory in nature," the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement.
Sweden also joined the condemnation, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) wrote in a post on X.
The death penalty has long been a possible punishment under Israeli law. However, it only applies to crimes such as high treason, genocide and crimes against humanity and has only been carried out twice, the last time being when the "Architect of the Holocaust," Adolf Eichmann, was hanged in 1962.
Corrected: In a previous version, there was an incorrect listing of which countries had signed the condemnation.
