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Knesset passes death penalty
The Knesset approved on Monday, March 30, a law allowing courts to impose the death penalty on people convicted of murders committed during acts of terrorism, and Amnesty International France said the measure is “clearly targeting Palestinians.”
Amnesty International France said that on Monday, May 11, a military-style court was created with sentencing to death the perpetrators of the October 7 attacks, and it called the laws “regressive and dangerous.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged Israel to repeal the law adopted by its parliament on March 30, saying it “raises grave concerns about violations of guarantees of due process.”
Türk said the law makes execution by hanging the default penalty for Palestinians found guilty in the occupied West Bank of deadly attacks against Israelis, and it requires that death sentences be carried out within 90 days, which he said constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law.
French left and UN pushback
Public Sénat reported that European countries condemned the March 30 law unanimously and that Berlin, London, Paris and Rome warned in a joint communiqué of the risk of the measure “undermining Israel's commitments to democratic principles.”
Public Sénat said Olivier Faure wrote on X that “This racist law of the Israeli far-right government, reserving the death penalty for Palestinians,” and it also quoted Laurence Rossignol calling the decision “This is an infamy.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death penalty carries “the unacceptable risk of executing innocents,” and he said its discriminatory application would constitute an additional, particularly egregious, violation of international law.
Türk also said the law’s application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime, and he urged the Knesset to reject a separate bill under review that would create a special (military) court for crimes committed during and after the October 7, 2023 attacks by Palestinian armed groups.
Implementation in West Bank
The Palestinian prisoners’ execution law went into effect on Sunday evening after Central Command chief Avi Blot signed the military order necessary to implement the law in the occupied Palestinian territories, Al Jazeera Net reported.
Al Jazeera Net said the move meant the Knesset’s approval on March 30 was not enough by itself to take effect in the West Bank, which is not subject to Israeli civil law in such matters, and it described the government’s need to issue a Security Instruction Order to enable imposing the punishment within the military courts operating in the West Bank.
The law, as described by Al Jazeera Net, targets those Israel calls “the militants who carry out killings against Jews,” and it said the order came at Katz’s direction after Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the start of procedures last Sunday.
The same report said the next phase would include efforts by the military prosecutor's office to use the law in large-scale operation cases while legal challenges before the Israeli Supreme Court over the law's constitutionality and its implementation in the West Bank continue.
