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Israel has approved a bill which might allow for Palestinians within the West Bank convicted of terrorism charges to be executed.
The laws makes the death penalty a default punishment for Palestinians who’re found guilty of ‘intentionally’ carrying out attacks that are classed as terrorism by a military court.
The move has been condemned by the European Union in addition to France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
It’s been classed as discrimination because it doesn’t apply to Jewish residents of Israel and doesn’t comply with International Humanitarian Law.
‘The death penalty bill in Israel could be very concerning to us within the EU. This can be a clear step backwards – the introduction of the death penalty, along with the discriminatory nature of the law,’ EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni told journalists in Brussels.
As Palestinians living within the Israel-occupied territory are routinely tried in Israeli military courts, the measure effectively creates harsher and stricter sentences for the people living there.
It was tabled by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was later seen celebrating it being passed with a champagne toast within the nation’s Parliamentary corridors.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had attended the chamber to support the bill, may be seen congratulating lawmakers on it passing.
In Ramallah, dozens of activists, political factions and civil society groups gathered to protest the law.
Some held placards depicting a blindfolded prisoner flanked by two hanging nooses – a stark image of what they fear lies ahead.
‘Stop the execution of prisoners law before it’s too late,’ read the placards, held alongside portraits of imprisoned Palestinians.
Abdullah al-Zaghari, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, condemned what he described was an openly discriminatory law.
‘This fascist and racist laws reflects the fact of the occupation,’ he said. ‘It applies to Palestinians – to not Israeli Jews who perform each day violence against Palestinian civilians.’
Haitham, a 28-year-old worker of a global humanitarian organisation, said the law was ‘horrible’.
‘But we expected it… What are you able to expect from a government with people like Netanyahu?’ he told AFP, declining to provide his last name.
The laws is ‘primitive and really silly’, said Meyir Lahav, a physician from Tel Aviv, adding that such measures were ‘deplorable and unacceptable in our society’.
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‘We must be ashamed.’
‘What I don’t like is that it doesn’t apply to everyone,’ said Tom, a software engineer, who gave only his first name.
‘If someone commits murder, it should apply to all – Jews, Arabs, Muslims alike.’
Yves, a French resident of Israel, also opposed the measure.
‘To make a decision that, once an individual has been captured, they must be put to death – no matter what they’ve done – and to entrust one other with carrying out that act, is something I reject on principle,’ he said.
But others, like businessman Noah Levi, firmly backed the law.
‘The death penalty is a excellent thing; we should always have implemented it a protracted time ago,’ Levi said.
The death penalty exists in Israel nevertheless it has been applied only twice: in 1948, shortly after the state’s founding, against a military captain accused of high treason, after which in 1962, when the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.
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