Israel passes law making death penalty default sentence for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks

Israel’s ​parliament passed ‌a law on ​Monday ​making the death ⁠penalty ​a default ​sentence for Palestinians convicted ​in ​military court of ‌deadly ⁠attacks, seeing through a ​main ​pledge ⁠by Prime ​Minister ​Benjamin ⁠Netanyahu’s far-right ⁠allies.

The legislation has been sharply criticised as discriminatory by European nations and rights groups.

The Times of Israel reported that the Knesset voted 62-48 to pass the law.

The bill was spearheaded by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party.

The legislation results in the death penalty becoming the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” by an Israeli military court.

The legislation says that the sentence may be reduced to life imprisonment under “special circumstances”.

According to The Times of Israel, the sentence handed under the law cannot be appealed.

Palestinians in the West Bank are automatically tried in Israeli military courts.

Meanwhile, under the law, in Israeli criminal courts, anyone “who intentionally causes the death of a person with the aim of harming an Israeli citizen or resident out of an intention to put an end to the existence of the state of Israel shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment”.

Criminal courts try Israeli nationals, including Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The law sets the execution method as hanging, adding that it should be carried out within 90 days of the sentencing, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.

Opposition lawmaker and former deputy Mossad director, Ram Ben Barak, expressed outrage at the legislation before it was passed.

“Do you understand what it means that there is one law for Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and a different law for the general public for which the state of Israel is responsible?” he asked fellow parliamentarians, using the Israeli name for the West Bank.

“I’ll tell you what it says. It says that Hamas has defeated us. It has defeated us because we have lost all our values,” he said. “It has defeated us because we are beginning to conduct ourselves like them, unfortunately. Full of hatred. And vengeance.”

‘Discriminatory application’

In February, Amnesty International urged Israeli lawmakers to reject the legislation, which it said “would allow Israeli courts to expand their use of death sentences with discriminatory application against Palestinians”.

On Sunday, Britain, France, Germany and Italy expressed “deep concern” over the legislation, which they said risked “undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”.

While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country — the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed in 1962.