Israel’s new the death penalty law has terrified Palestinians.
Maisoun Shawamreh spent the entire night in the occupied West Bank worrying about her son’s destiny after the Israeli Knesset approved a law allowing the execution of Palestinians found guilty of fatal terror attacks.As she participated in an anti-law demonstration in Ramallah on Tuesday, Shawamreh told AFP, “The mothers of prisoners—none of us slept last night.”
Her son has been detained for three years while he awaits sentencing on attempted murder charges.”He might or might not be put to death,” she remarked, unsure of the future.
The new law, which was approved by parliament late on Monday, stipulates that Palestinians in the West Bank who are found guilty by military courts of carrying out lethal attacks deemed to be “terrorism” will automatically be sentenced to death.
The policy effectively creates a distinct and harsher legal track because Palestinians in the region are automatically tried in Israeli military courts.
If someone is found guilty of killing with intent to harm the state, they may be sentenced to either death or life in prison in Israeli civilian courts.
Critics claim that the distinction highlights an unfair justice system even though the law does not allow for retroactive application.
Numerous activists, political parties, and civil society organizations came together in Ramallah to demonstrate against the law.
Some carried signs that showed two hanging nooses on either side of a blindfolded prisoner, a vivid representation of what they feared would happen.The signs, which were displayed next to pictures of Palestinian inmates, said, “Stop the execution of prisoners law before it’s too late.”Cruel and discriminatory
The Palestinian Prisoners Club’s director, Abdullah al-Zaghari, denounced what he called an overtly discriminatory law.The occupation’s reality is reflected in this racist and Nazi legislation, he claimed. “It applies to Palestinians — not to Israeli Jews who carry out daily violence against Palestinian civilians.”
The law is “horrible,” according to Haitham, a 28-year-old employee of an international humanitarian organization.He declined to provide his last name and told AFP, “But we expected it… What can you expect from a government with people like Netanyahu?”
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, joined a few other members in a champagne toast in a legislative corridor to celebrate the bill’s approval.
The measure was deemed “cruel and discriminatory” by Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN leader Antonio Guterres.He told reporters, “We demand that the Israeli government withdraw it and not put it into effect.
According to PACE President Petra Bayr, the measure “seriously jeopardises Israel’s observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe” on Tuesday.
IN ISRAEL, DOUBT
There has been significant skepticism even within Israel.
On Tuesday night, dozens of Israelis demonstrated against the law outside the Knesset in Jerusalem. They carried banners that read “Palestinian Lives Matter” before police used water cannon to scatter them.
Tel Aviv doctor Meyir Lahav called the legislation “primitive and very stupid” and added that such actions were “deplorable and unacceptable in our society”We ought to be embarrassed.”Tom, a software developer who only provided his first name, stated, “What I dislike is that it doesn’t apply to everyone.”Everyone should be held accountable for murder, including Muslims, Arabs, and Jews.
The measure was also opposed by Yves, a French resident of Israel.I disagree on principle with the idea that someone should be executed after being apprehended, regardless of what they have done, and that someone else should be tasked with carrying out that decision,” he stated.
However, certain people, such as billionaire Noah Levi, strongly supported the law.”We should have instituted the death penalty long ago; it’s a very good thing,” Levi stated.
He claims that Palestinians “have killed innocent people, which is why we must take measures to prevent a future catastrophe for Israel.”
Israel has the death sentence, but it has only been used twice: once in 1948, not long after the state was established, against a military captain who was charged with high treason, and again in 1962, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was executed.