The Knesset is expected to vote this week on a death penalty bill that four European countries on Sunday voiced deep concerns over its language about which rights advocates say targets Palestinians. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
The foreign ministers of four European powers on Sunday voiced “deep concern” over an Israeli death penalty bill that rights advocates warn would be used disproportionately against Palestinians.
The so-called Death Penalty for Terrorist bill, promoted by far-right lawmakers, has been working its way toward a final vote since it passed its first reading in November, with a final vote expected on Monday.
The foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France and Italy on Sunday issued a statement against the bill they said would “significantly expand the possibilities to impose the death penalty in Israel.
“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill,” they said. “The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles.”
Israel abolished the death penalty in 1954, executions remained on the books for crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and treason, and it was under those laws that the state executed executed Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief organizations of the Holocaust, in 1962.
The new law was proposed last year by far-right Israeli lawmakers amid Israel’s war in Gaza, and was moved to the Knesset last week by the National Security Committee.
Under the law, anyone convicted of causing death, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in a terrorism-related act committed to harm an Israeli or reject the state’s existence will be sentenced to either death or life behind bars, according to a statement from the Knesset.
In the widely regarded illegally occupied West Bank, death would be mandatory in military courts for those convicted of terror-related murder.
It would also lower the threshold for imposing a death sentence from a unanimous decision by a judges’ panel to a simple majority and require the sentence to be executed within 90 days of the final verdict, or 180 days if the prime minister finds special reason to delay the execution.
Executions will be conducted by hanging, according to the legislation.
Those in support of the law champion it as a deterrent against terrorist attacks.
“The death penalty for terrorists law is the most important law the Knesset has enacted in recent years, and it is intended to protect our children,” Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right, anti-Arab Jewish Power party, said Tuesday after the Wednesday vote by the National Security Committee.
“This law is meant to make our enemies think a thousand times before choosing to harm Israeli citizens. Anyone who votes in favor of this bill is taking part in making history. With God’s help, we will fully implement this law and kill our enemies.”
Human rights organizations have criticized the bill for months. Experts with the United Nations urged its withdrawal in February, stating that “mandatory death sentences are contrary to the right to life.”
They also rallied against Israel’s “vague and overbroad definitions of terrorist offenses,” which include conduct they say is not genuinely terrorist.
“The bill makes matters worse by allowing death sentences to be imposed by a simple majority vote of military judges, and banning any pardon or commutation, which expressly violates the right to life,” the experts said in a statement.
Amnesty International described the legislation as the Israeli government granting itself “carte blanche” to impose death sentences against Palestinians.
“Any death sentences imposed under these amendments would constitute a violation of the right to life and when imposed by a military court may also amount to war crimes,” Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in a statement.
Ahead of the expected vote the nonprofit Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories said the law is worded to specifically apply to Palestinians and will normalize their killings by the state of Israel.
“Israel enforces a comprehensive policy of killing and oppression against the Palestinian people in all the territories it controls,” it said in a social media statement.
“The Death Penalty Law gives Israel’s apartheid regime yet another tool for advancing that policy.”
