Pedro Sánchez Condemns Israeli Knesset Death Penalty Law for Palestinians, Calls It Apartheid

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a law that allows the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of carrying out attacks that kill Israelis, calling it “a new slide toward an apartheid regime.”

“Israeli extremist Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu renewed his racist remarks against Palestinian citizens living in the lands Israel occupied in 1948”

Al-Jazeera Net

Sánchez said on the X platform on Tuesday that the measure is unequal and “will not apply to Israelis who commit the same crimes,” adding that “This is another step toward apartheid, and the world cannot remain silent.”

Al-Jazeera Net

The law approved on Monday enables military courts to issue death sentences against Palestinian prisoners, with the death sentence carried out by guards designated by the Israeli Prison Service, with identity kept secret and with legal immunity.

It also allows issuing the sentence without a request from the Public Prosecution, by a simple majority within the court panel, without requiring unanimity, and extends to military courts that try Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The European Commission described the law as “deeply troubling,” and the article says the move sparked broad concerns that it institutionalizes discrimination because it does not apply to Jewish Israelis.

In occupied Jerusalem, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu renewed racist remarks against Palestinian citizens residing in the lands Israel occupied in 1948 during a session in the Israeli Knesset on Tuesday.

Eliyahu mocked Arab MP Walid al-Huwaishla, telling him: “If the state of Israel did not exist, Walid and his friends would still be riding camels.”

L'Humanité

The article says Eliyahu’s remarks came from the far-right Jewish Power party and that the Times of Israel noted it was not the first time he made racist statements, including a previous call for striking the Gaza Strip with nuclear weapons after the October 7, 2023 attack.

The same source frames the remarks as contradicting historical data about Palestine before 1948, including cities such as Jaffa, Haifa, and Acre with modern schools, daily newspapers, theatres, cinemas, banks and thriving commercial companies.

It adds that Palestinians inside Israel account for about 21 percent of the population and says international organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe systematic discrimination.

The Spanish condemnation of the death penalty law comes alongside a description of the situation of Palestinian prisoners, saying that more than 9,500 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails, including about 350 children and 73 women.

The article says reports of abuses including torture, medical neglect, and starvation have resulted in the deaths of several detainees in custody, and it notes that Israel repealed the death penalty in murder cases in 1954 and has executed it only once since then, against Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

In the same broader context, the article from Al-Jazeera Net says Israel—backed by the United States—began a genocide in the Gaza Strip the day after October 7, 2023, and that the aggression continues despite a ceasefire agreement announced since October 10, 2025.

It states that the ceasefire agreement has killed or injured more than 172,000 Palestinians and caused massive destruction affecting 90 percent of civilian infrastructure.

LVSL’s report adds that after October 7, Israelis lived with “the loss of 1,200 fellow citizens,” and it describes displacement in the north as leaving “roughly 6,000 displaced” who have not yet returned home along the Lebanese border.