Human rights groups and Palestinian leaders have condemned the passage of Israeli legislation sanctioning the use of the death penalty against Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, calling the measure a violation of international law and inherently discriminatory.
The law passed on Monday by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, makes death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are found guilty of killing Israelis.
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It was supported by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was seen celebrating with champagne in the parliamentary chamber after the law was passed by 62 votes to 48.
“We made history,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a social media post, rejecting international calls to withdraw the law. “And I say to those in the EU who have pressured and threatened the State of Israel: we are not afraid, we will not bow down,” he said.
The law comes in the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, amid an increase in Israeli military and settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as thousands of arrests. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said it has filed an appeal against the law in Israel’s Supreme Court.
Here’s a quick look at how human rights advocates and leaders have reacted to the death penalty law:
Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the law as a “dangerous escalation”.
In a social media post, the ministry stressed that “Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian lands” in the occupied territories.
“This law once again exposes the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legalize extrajudicial killing under legislative guise,” it said.
Hamas
Palestinian groups condemned the passage of the death penalty law, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that could jeopardize the lives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
“This decision confirms the (Israeli) occupation and its leaders’ contempt for international law and their disregard for all humanitarian norms and conventions,” Hamas said in a statement.
The group called on the international community, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to take immediate action to protect Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s “brutality.”
Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative
Barghouti warned about the “severity” of the law, which he said would target Palestinian political prisoners and activists.
In a post on
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
The Gaza-based rights organization said it condemned the law “in the strongest terms”.
“This law targets Palestinians and reinforces Israel’s long-standing policy of extrajudicial executions under the cover of law, in clear violation of international human rights and humanitarian law,” PCHR said in a social media post.
The group called on the international community to “immediately intervene” to protect Palestinian prisoners, while warning that “silence and inaction will only deepen impunity and destroy the rules-based international order”.
united nations human rights office
The United Nations Human Rights Office in Palestine called on Israel to “immediately repeal the discriminatory death penalty law”, noting that the measure violates the country’s obligations under international law.
“The United Nations opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. The implementation of this new law would violate international law’s prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,” the office said on X.
“Additionally, this law further strengthens Israel’s violations of the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid as it will apply specifically to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel, who are often convicted after unfair trials.”
Amnesty International
The global human rights group called on Israeli authorities to repeal the law, which it described as “a public display of cruelty, discrimination and blatant contempt for human rights.”
Erica Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said the passage of the law comes just weeks after Israel dropped all charges against soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian captive.
“For years, we have seen an alarming pattern of apparent extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings of Palestinians – with the perpetrators enjoying almost complete impunity,” Guevara-Rosas said in a statement.
“This new law that allows state-sanctioned executions is the culmination of such policies.”
Council of Europe
Alain Berset, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, condemned the passage of the law, calling it a “serious regression”.
Burset said in a statement, “The death penalty is a legal malpractice that is inconsistent with contemporary human rights standards. Furthermore, any application of the death penalty that could be considered discriminatory is unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law.”
He also said that Israel is a party to several conventions of the Council of Europe and participates in several cooperation mechanisms.
“In this context, the Council of Europe will closely monitor upcoming developments regarding this legislation. It will examine its implications for the conventions of the Council of Europe, to which Israel is a party, as well as for the cooperation mechanisms in which this state participates,” Burset said.
Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee
In a statement released by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, McEntee condemned the bill, saying she was “particularly concerned about the substantive discriminatory nature of the bill as it relates to Palestinians”.
“The right to life is a fundamental human right and Ireland is consistently and firmly opposed to the use of the death penalty in all cases and all circumstances,” he said, urging the Israeli government not to implement the law.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani
In a social media post just hours before the law was officially passed, Tajani said that Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom had requested that the Israeli government withdraw the bill.
“Commitments made to ban the death penalty, especially resolutions voted at the United Nations, cannot be ignored,” Tajani wrote on X.
“For us, life is an absolute value; to impose upon ourselves the right to take it away in order to punish it is an inhumane measure that violates the dignity of the person.”
