The United Nations Rights Chief, Volker Turk has slammed the Israeli parliament’s approval of a “deeply discriminatory” new death penalty bill, warning that applying it on occupied Palestinian territory “would constitute a war crime.”
Turk said in a statement that the new law, which would make the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” by an Israeli military court, “is patently inconsistent with Israel’s international law obligations.”
“Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime.”
Volker Turk
Israel’s Knesset passed the death penalty legislation on Monday evening. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a controversial one-sided bill that will instruct military courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of “terror”, but will not impose the same penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of killing Palestinians.
The law, which enters into effect within 30 days, was approved yesterday in the 120-seat Knesset by 62 lawmakers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with 48 voting against it and one abstention.
Under the law, executions would be carried out by hanging by prison guards appointed by the Israeli Prison Service. Those involved would have anonymity and legal immunity.
The legislation also mandates transferring the Palestinians sentenced to death to special detention facilities and restricting their visitors to authorised parties. Meetings with lawyers would be limited to video communications.
More than 9,500 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including 350 children and 73 women. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups say detainees face torture, starvation and medical neglect, leading to dozens of deaths.
Since the beginning of its genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has intensified measures against Palestinian prisoners. The conflict has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded 172,000, most of them women and children.
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, warned that Israel’s new death penalty law instructing military courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of “terror” applies only to non-Jews, describing it in a post on X as “another step toward apartheid.”
“The Government of Spain condemns the death penalty for Palestinians that has just been approved by the Israeli parliament.
“This is an asymmetric measure that would not be applied to Israelis who commit the same crimes. Same crime, different punishment. That is not justice. It is another step toward apartheid. The world cannot remain silent.”
Pedro Sanchez
A European Union Spokesperson also said that the passage of the legislation is “very concerning.”
The human rights group Amnesty International called on Israeli authorities to repeal the law, which it described as “a public display of cruelty, discrimination and utter contempt for human rights.”
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s senior Director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in a statement, “For years, we have seen an alarming pattern of apparent extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings of Palestinians – with the perpetrators also enjoying near-total impunity,” adding, “This new law, which allows for state-sanctioned executions, is a culmination of such policies.”
Petition Filed To Challenge Bill
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a leading Israeli human rights group, has filed a petition with the country’s Supreme Court to challenge the bill.
It says that its basis for challenging the bill is that Israel doesn’t have the right to “legislate for the West Bank” and that the law is unconstitutional, as it “violates … rights protected under [Israel’s] Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.”
Hundreds of Palestinians have protested across the occupied West Bank to denounce the passage of an Israeli law approving the use of the death penalty against Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks.
Demonstrations were staged in several cities, including Ramallah, Tubas, Nablus and Jenin in the north and Hebron in the south, after calls by prisoner advocacy groups.
A Palestinian news agency disclosed that Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups and national factions staged a sit-in in the courtyard of the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in el-Bireh.
Participants displayed photographs of dozens of prisoners who have died in custody over the decades.
The protest drew a broad crowd, including families of prisoners, senior members of the Fatah party, civil society organisations, trade unions and women’s groups.
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