Knesset passes law mandating death penalty for West Bank terror convicts

Israels Parliament the Knesset on Monday local time passed a law mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of terrorist acts drawing condemnation from the European Union and the United NationsThe legislation approved by a 6247 vote was backed by Israels farright National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir The Times of Israel reportedAccording to a CNN report the bill says that people in the West Bank who kill an Israeli with the intent to negate the existence of the State of Israel will face the death penalty Judges may impose life imprisonment only under vaguely defined special circumstances while executions must take place within 90 days of sentencingThis is a day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies No more revolving door for terrorists but a clear decision Whoever chooses terrorism chooses death Ben Gvir said as quoted by The Times of Israel The law requires only a simple majority of judges to hand down the sentence and removes any right of appealIt is designed to apply to future cases and will not be applied retroactively including to perpetrators of the 2023 Hamasled attacks on October 7 whose prosecution will be addressed under a separate bill While Israel formally allows the death penalty executions have been extremely rare with only one carried out the 1962 hanging of Nazi war criminal Adolf EichmannPreviously capital punishment could only be imposed under narrowly defined circumstances and required a unanimous judicial panel a threshold never met in terrorism cases The legislation applies exclusively to Palestinians who are tried in military courts while Israeli citizens are tried in civilian courts the CNN report notedA separate provision allows the death penalty for anyone who intentionally causes the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel a definition critics say effectively excludes Jewish perpetrators The law has drawn condemnation from Palestinian authorities and international bodiesThe Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it a crime and a dangerous escalation in the occupations policies adding that Israeli laws do not apply to Palestinians and that the legislation reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative coverUN Human Rights Palestine said Israel must immediately repeal the discriminatory death penalty law passed today by the Knesset as it contravenes Israels obligations under international law The United Nations opposes the death penalty under all circumstances The implementation of this new law would violate international laws prohibition of cruel inhuman or degrading punishment Additionally this law further entrenches Israels 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 trialsSecretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset said The vote in the KnessetIL reinstating the death penalty is a major civilisational setback A choice that distances those who made it from the system of values upheld by the COE They assume a historic responsibilityItalys Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added Our government together with those of Germany France and the United Kingdom through a joint statement has requested the Israeli government to withdraw the bill that introduces the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism The commitments undertaken especially with the resolutions voted on at the United Nations for a moratorium on the death penalty cannot be disregarded For us life is an absolute value arrogating to oneself the right to take it away in order to inflict a punishment is an inhuman measure that violates the dignity of the personEarlier in the year UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Israeli authorities to drop plans for mandatory death sentences exclusively for Palestinians saying such proposals violate international law and discriminate against PalestiniansWhen it comes to the death penalty the United Nations is very clear and opposes it under all circumstances It is profoundly difficult to reconcile such punishment with human dignity and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people Turk saidTurk further stressed that the law conflicts with Israels obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights He highlighted concerns over the mandatory nature of the death sentences which remove judicial discretion and violate the right to life and criticised the discriminatory targeting of PalestiniansThe UN High Commissioner noted that military courts in the occupied West Bank would be required to impose the death penalty for all convictions of intentional killing while amendments to Israeli Penal Law would also allow capital punishment for killing Israelis in terrorist attacks He warned that retroactive application to perpetrators of the October 7 2023 attacks would breach the principle of legality under international lawThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever