The Israeli parliament recently introduced a law making the death penalty a default for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks -- News Editor Beth Clifford writes of the global outrage.
The Israeli Knesset approved a bill on 30 March that imposes the death penalty as a default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks in Israel’s military courts. Strikes erupted in response to this new legislation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, while countries across Europe, Africa and Asia have harshly condemned this move by Israeli lawmakers.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was seen celebrating the passing of the legislation in parliament by raising a bottle of champagne, while surrounding legislators broke out in cheer. Ben-Gvir has been a strong supporter of this bill, demonstrated by his recent displays of a gold lapel pin in the shape of a noose, a symbol of execution under this law.
The legislation is focused on military courts in the West Bank, which only tries West Bank Palestinians, where those convicted of killing an Israeli citizen will be automatically sentenced to death within 90 days of the conviction. In 2010 it was discovered that, of the Palestinians tried in these military courts, 99.74% were found guilty.
On the other hand, this new bill lays out that Israeli citizens, who are tried within Israel’s civilian courts, convicted of killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank will face two scenarios of either life imprisonment or the death penalty. Between 2003 and 2024 it was found that Israeli settlers experience a 3% conviction rate for committing crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Palestinians took to the streets in a general strike in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron on 1 April, with shops and universities closing their doors for the day. Some Palestinian shop owners report however that Israeli forces coerced them into reopening their shutters.
Condemnation has come from the UK, Italy, France and Germany who believe the bill is discriminatory and goes against democracy’s core values, with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez labelling it as “a step toward apartheid”. Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates criticised the move by Israeli lawmakers saying it risks escalating tensions.
In a joint statement signed by several global human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Trócaire, grave concerns have been raised, because “while the law does not explicitly reference ethnicity or nationality, it is effectively designed to target Palestinians exclusively. It also introduces an exceptional execution regime by hanging, characterised by secrecy, and limited access to legal counsel and external oversight”.
The statement by these human rights organisations goes further in saying, “Diplomatic engagement by the EU and its Member States urging Israel to reverse course has so far proven ineffective”. The most striking comment in this statement comes at the end when these groups call for “suspending, as a minimum immediate measure, the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and adopting other measures”.
Once enacted, this law still has the potential to be overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court. Facing a wave of legal and political backlash, Ben-Gvir has voiced his adamance for the legislation on Israeli right-wing news channel, C14, on 6 April declaring “The death penalty law for terrorists is the most moral law. We will implement it and execute them with the help of God. As someone who took everything from them - I want to take life from the terrorists as well”.