European countries have expressed “deep concern” about Israel's imminent adoption of a death penalty bill widely seen as discriminating against Palestinians.
“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill. The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles,” said the governments of Germany, France, Italy and the UK.
The bill, expected to be passed on Monday, is being championed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly called for the killing of Palestinian “terrorists”.
The bill has two provisions for the death penalty. One applies in the occupied West Bank, where military courts would be able to impose it for “terrorist acts”. Only Palestinians are tried in military courts and have a conviction rate of 96 per cent “based largely on 'confessions' extracted under duress and torture during interrogations”, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
The law would apply to residents of the West Bank “except Israeli residents”, a copy of the law seen by The National said.
Under the second provision, Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in occupied East Jerusalem would face the death penalty for “intentional killing … with the aim of negating the existence of the State of Israel”.
“If a Palestinian was killed whether in the West Bank or Israel from ideological point of view, they're not considered impacting the state of Israel,” Suhad Bishara, a director at the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights (Adalah), told The National.
In both cases, the definition of what constitutes a terrorist act is vague, a UN Panel of Experts has said.
Israel currently holds 9,500 Palestinians under “administrative detention” – that is, without charge. Since the Gaza war broke out on October 7, 2023, at least 80 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons where they are exposed to poor treatment, medical negligence and violence, B'Tselem said.
Introduced in November, the bill has faced major opposition domestically and internationally, resulting in changes to its language. A previous version stipulated that the death penalty would be mandatory, but after some opposition the language was revised to allow life imprisonment instead in some cases.
A death sentence would also require due process for a fair trial – conditions that are not met under the way Israel's court system operates against Palestinian detainees. In many cases, coercive interrogation or torture is used to obtain information from suspects, say local and international rights groups.
Additionally, Palestinians are denied access to so-called secret evidence against them, thereby preventing them from fully being able to defend themselves. In January, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said the bill contravenes international law on several levels.
“Such proposals are inconsistent with Israel’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” he said. “The proposal also raises other human rights concerns, including on the basis that it is discriminatory given it will exclusively apply to Palestinians.”
Although it never officially abolished the death penalty, the last execution Israel carried out took place in 1962.
