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Israel is pushing a law to execute Palestinian prisoners while exempting Jewish Israelis, entrenching racial discrimination as state policy.
The final draft of a bill that would entrench the death penalty as a tool of Israeli state violence against Palestinian prisoners has been published by Israelimedia on Tuesday, formalising executions under a legal framework that applies exclusively to Palestinians and not to Jewish Israelis.
The bill, pushed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, mandates the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murder with what Israel defines as a “terrorist motivation” that “harms the state of Israel”.
Under the bill’s wording, Jewish Israelis accused of similar crimes would not face the same punishment, reinforcing Israel’s dual legal system rooted in racial and national discrimination.
According to the full text published by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN), executions would be carried out by hanging within a maximum of 90 days from sentencing. The execution would be performed by an appointed guard granted full criminal immunity.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians would be tried in Israeli military courts, where a death sentence would require only a majority decision by a panel of military judges.
Appeals would be allowed against the verdict but not the sentence itself, rendering executions effectively irreversible. In cases related to Gaza, the sentence would also be final.
For Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship, known as 1948 Palestinians, the bill allows courts to impose either the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of release in any future prisoner exchange.
The draft law further orders that prisoners sentenced under the legislation be held in separate detention facilities, barred from receiving visitors except for authorised parties, and subjected to severe restrictions on legal representation. Lawyers would be prohibited from holding face-to-face meetings with those condemned by Israeli courts.
As of the beginning of this month, 115 Palestinian prisoners are serving life sentences in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC).
The group said the bill constitutes “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and all international treaties that prohibit the death penalty outside fair trials and guarantee the protection of prisoners”.
The PPC said the legislation “legitimises extrajudicial killings” and exposes Israel’s systematic abuse of its role as an occupying power, particularly given that thousands of Palestinians are held without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Abdullah al-Zaghari, a PPC official based in Bethlehem, described the bill as a “dangerous escalation” that codifies what Palestinians have long endured inside Israeli prisons.
“This law entrenches a policy of slow execution that Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to for years through torture, medical neglect, starvation and systematic assaults,” he said. “It transfers Israel’s crimes from the realm of practice into that of official legislation.”
Human rights organisations have repeatedly warned that Israel’s prison and judicial systems are built on racialised legal frameworks, where Palestinians are prosecuted in military courts while Jewish settlers in the same territory are tried under civilian law and enjoy near-total impunity.
Ben-Gvir openly celebrated the bill, declaring that members of his far-right coalition “will not rest and will not stop until the terrorists are executed”.
“Those who brutally murdered cannot continue to live and see the light of day,” he said. “We need the death penalty so that they will see and be afraid.”
The bill is expected to advance to a second and third reading in the Knesset. If passed, it would mark a further descent into legislated brutality, cementing Israel’s use of the death penalty as a weapon of collective punishment against Palestinians under occupation.
Source: https://www.newarab.com
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