Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Social Welfare Minister Haim Katz are pushing an initiative to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12 - but the Israel Police itself is against the idea.
Police believe that lowering the age by which minors convicted of violent crimes can be jailed will encourage, not discourage, crime.
"We maintain that it is necessary that the law allow police to arrest minors in exceptional cases," an opinion submitted by the Legal Counsel of the Department of Investigations (CID) states, Walla! News reports. "[But] the detention of minors under age 14 as proposed would not prevent minors from carrying out attacks. It seems that the proposed arrangement [...] may impair deterrence and encourage violent activity to juveniles even younger [than 12]."
The Justice Ministry plan, if implemented, would see minors ages 12-14 convicted of murder, attempted murder, or manslaughter be held in a locked facility until age 14, then transferred to a normative prison.
The Israel Police notes that the law could see minors "who are real dangers to the public" be kept locked away for public safety, but they nonetheless express reservations about the law's ability to be expanded to other criminal offenses.
"Minors as young as 12 could be convicted of serious sexual offenses, homicide, robbery, placing explosive devices, extortion, car theft, burglary, attempted arson, and more," the CID statement argues. "Experience shows that in various cases of minors under the age of 14 who were in a locked facility, once released, would commit even more serious crimes until they are caught."
The CID specifically cited a case of a gang of teenage robbers, under the age of 14, who robbed an old woman and a gas station after being jailed.
The hot-button issue follows a wave of violence in Israel in general - with an upswing in minor offenders. In two separate attacks in Pisgat Ze'ev, Jerusalem, a pair of teens aged 12 and 15 in once case, and 11 and 14 in another, stabbed Israelis with intent to kill.
The incidents have raised questions about Israel's current practices regarding minor terrorists, as 13 year-old Ahmed Mansara - who stabbed two people in the first stabbing incident - is due to turn 14 in a few short weeks, thus allowing legal leeway to sentence him to prison for his crimes.