Israeli Parliament Approves Death Penalty Law Targeting Palestinians, Jews Excluded

JAKARTA - The Israeli Parliament has passed a controversial bill (RUU) that seeks to impose the death penalty on Palestinians who are proven guilty of killing Israelis in acts of terror.

In the rules, Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians, even in similar cases, are excluded from the death penalty.

Citing the Financial Review, Tuesday, March 31, the process of approving the bill into law (UU) took place yesterday, after members of parliament voted 62-48 in favor of the law after a debate of almost 12 hours.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among those who voted in favor of participating in the process leading up to the ratification. Several Israeli opposition politicians also supported the bill.

The Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was previously convicted of being proven to have committed racist violence against Arabs, wore a 'death row' pin on his collar as a form of support for this bill.

Ben-Gvir called it the "most important" law Israel has introduced in recent years and argued that the law would prevent attacks on Israelis.

This law is the latest in a series of racist and intimidating bills targeting Palestinians submitted by the Netanyahu Government to parliament for approval.

The law, pushed by lawmakers from Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power right-wing party, has drawn criticism from Israel's allies in Europe, human rights groups, and some Israeli opposition lawmakers as it is considered racist, flawed, and in violation of international law.

On Sunday, March 29, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom called on Israel to cancel the bill, criticizing its "de facto discriminatory character".

Target Pelestina Residents, West Bank Landlords

The latest version of the bill before it was passed into law stipulates that in military courts that try Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, which is the standard sentence for the murder of Israeli citizens in acts of terror, is the death penalty.

The law also allows for sentences based on majority decisions, not unanimous decisions, by military courts, and requires executions to be carried out within 90 days of the final verdict. Alternative sentences of life imprisonment can only be imposed in "special" circumstances that are not specified.

In Israeli courts, which try Israelis, including Palestinians in Israel, the death penalty will only apply in cases where the killing is carried out with the intent to "deny the existence of the State of Israel" - a clause that critics say means that the sentence will not apply to Jewish Israelis.

Judges in this court can also choose whether to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment. The execution will be carried out by hanging.

The executive director of the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, Tal Steiner, said the law was "extreme, discriminatory and racist".

"It is very clear that this bill will apply to Palestinians, never to Jews, and will also apply to the occupied [Palestinian] territories, which in itself is a violation of the Geneva Convention. So there are already many deviations from international law there," he said.

This bill is "so extreme that it really has no comparison even with regimes where the death penalty still exists," he added.