The lawmakers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have called for 25 of these prisoners to be granted amnesty, according to the Israeli news outlet Ynet.
“Over the past few days, the Israeli government has been releasing thousands of terrorists,” the letter stated, referring to the recent prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.
“Our signatures in no way constitute agreement with their actions,” the signatories wrote in reference to the Jewish Israelis convicted of murder.
“While these Jews languish in prison, leaving suffering families and sometimes even those who were victims of terrorism, they see terrorists, including despicable murderers, making their way to freedom with their people and their families,” the letter added.
“We call on you, Mr President, to act immediately for the release of these handful of Jewish prisoners and to correct this injustice.”
The signatories included members of the ruling Likud party and several ministers, among them Transport Minister Miri Regev and Culture Minister Miki Zohar.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began on 11 October, there have been growing calls for Herzog to pardon Israelis convicted of murdering Palestinians, who are described by some as “political prisoners”. Under Israeli law, the president has the authority to grant pardons.
Earlier this month, extremist settler leader Yossi Dagan appealed to Herzog, arguing that these prisoners should be released.
Ynet reported earlier that Herzog is considering commuting the sentences of Jewish prisoner Ami Popper and others convicted of attacks against Palestinians, in an effort to “balance” the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire deal.
“In recent months, the pardons departments, both in the President’s Residence and in the Ministry of Justice, have conducted administrative work that examined the requests of Jewish security prisoners for commutation of their sentences,” Ynet reported.
Popper, who has been serving a prison sentence since 1990 after the murder of seven Palestinian workers at a bus stop in Rishon LeZion, is scheduled to be released from prison in 2030.
According to the report, it is unclear who the other prisoners are whose requests are being reviewed by Herzog.
Yosef Haim Ben-David, one of the most high-profile prisoners, is serving a prison sentence for the 2014 murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
Ben-David and two others kidnapped Abu Khdeir, 16, in Jerusalem, beat him and then burned him alive.
Another is Amiram Ben-Uliel, convicted in 2020 of killing three members of the Dawabsheh family – including an 18-month-old baby – in a 2015 arson attack on their home in the occupied West Bank village of Duma.
He received three life sentences, which the Dawabsheh family said at the time was “not enough”.
“This will not bring back our family. It will not bring back Ahmad’s father,” the family told Middle East Eye after the verdict.
Recently, public calls have grown in Israel to release some of these prisoners.
“There is no moral justification for keeping Jews in prison who, even if they made a mistake, pose no danger to the public,” stated MP Limor Son Har-Melech of Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party in an interview with Ynet.
“The time has come to correct this injustice.”
Son Har-Melech, a settler in the occupied West Bank, initiated the letter to the president and has become one of the leading advocates for the prisoners’ release.
She made 30 prison visits between 2018 and 2024 to meet with several inmates.
In the past, she has also voiced support for Ben-Uliel’s release, claiming he is innocent.
