European states, the UN and human rights groups have called on Israel to repeal a death penalty law passed by the Knesset on Monday that targets Palestinians.
The legislation violates Israel's obligations under international law, the UN's Human Rights Office said. “This law further entrenches Israel’s violation of the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid as it will exclusively apply to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel, who are often convicted after unfair trials,” it added.
Israel holds 9,500 Palestinians in “administrative detention” – that is, without charge. They are now all at risk of the death penalty if a court finds them guilty of killing an Israeli.
Despite international pressure, the bill, passed by 62 votes to 48, mandates execution for Palestinians who are convicted of deadly “terrorist” attacks and does not punish Israeli Jews the same way.
People such as Jewish Israeli Amiram Ben Uliel, convicted in 2015 for an attack that killed an 18-month-old Palestinian boy along with his parents, are exempt from the death penalty. Israeli media reported he had been allowed family visits, while Palestinians in Israeli prisons are denied access to the International Committee for the Red Cross to check on their health and well-being.
Since the Gaza war broke out on October 7, 2023, at least 80 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons where they were exposed to poor treatment, medical negligence and violence, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said.
“Israel is reaching a new low in the dehumanisation of Palestinians, enshrining their cruel treatment in state law,” the group's executive director Yuli Novak said.
The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation strongly condemned the law, calling it a “dangerous and unprecedented step that grants a licence for murder and political execution” of Palestinians.
It called on the international community to “activate mechanisms of accountability against Israel … and to exert pressure to repeal the unlawful law”.
European countries urged the Knesset to abandon its plans to go ahead with passing the law. Australia, France, Germany, Italy and the UK issued a joint statement expressing their concern about the “de facto discriminatory character” of the bill. “We urge the Israeli decision-makers in Knesset and government to abandon these plans.”
Germany said it “cannot endorse” the law because it would apply specifically to Palestinians.
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”, B'Tselem said.
The legislation would apply to residents of the West Bank “except Israelis”, 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 an ideological point of view they're not considered impacting the state of Israel,” Dr Suhad Bishara, a director at the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights, told The National, before the bill was passed.
In both cases, the definition of what constitutes a terrorist act is vague, a UN Panel of Experts has said.
