Avi Blot Signs Military Order Enabling Death Penalty for Palestinian Prisoners in West Bank

A death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners took effect in the occupied West Bank after Avi Blot, the commander of the Israeli army's Central Command, signed a military order enabling its application before the military courts.

The law was approved by the Knesset on March 30, and the signing came about a month and a half later, according to the account that described it as broadening the use of the death penalty within Israel’s military justice system in the occupied territories.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the bill was “clearly incompatible with Israel's obligations under international law, including the right to life,” and urged Israel to repeal it.

Hamas condemned the decision, saying Katz's orders to immediately begin carrying out the “execution of Palestinian prisoners' death penalty'” constitute a “dangerous escalation and a 'flagrant violation' of all international norms and laws.”

Haaretz said Blot signed on Sunday evening a military order authorizing the application of the death penalty against Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank, granting military courts authority to hand down death sentences for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis motivated by what is called 'denial of the existence of the State of Israel'.

The law’s Knesset passage was by a vote of 62 votes to 48 against, with one abstention, and it provides for execution by hanging while granting legal immunity and secrecy of identity to the prison guards who carry out the executions.

Amnesty International

The UN also warned that death sentences must be carried out within 90 days, calling it a violation of international humanitarian law, and said the law does not provide for the possibility of clemency.

In parallel, the Al Jazeera account of the law’s effect described that the mechanism for issuing a death sentence is no longer conditioned on a request by the Public Prosecutor or on unanimity within the panel of judges, because the decision can be issued by a simple majority.

The next phase described in the accounts centers on how the military prosecutor’s office will use the law in new cases and how legal battles before the Israeli Supreme Court will proceed over the law’s constitutionality and how it will be applied in the West Bank.

“The Knesset approved on Monday, March 30, a law that allows courts to impose the death penalty on people convicted of murders committed during acts described as 'terrorist' acts”

Amnesty International France

The law’s wording, as described, says the military court must impose the death penalty as the only available punishment unless it finds exceptional circumstances justifying a life sentence instead, and it also denies clemency and limits military leadership powers to mitigate or cancel the punishment.

Amnesty International France said the Knesset adopted by 62 votes to 48 a modification of Israeli penal law called the 'Death Penalty for Terrorists Law,' and called it “retrograde and dangerous” while urging immediate repeal.

Amnesty International France also warned that in the occupied West Bank, military courts can sentence to death Palestinians accused of intentional homicides committed within actions defined as 'terrorist' by Israel, with execution “within 90 days of the final verdict.”