Israel Celebrates New Palestinian Death Penalty Law

FAR-RIGHT KNESSET MEMBERS CELEBRATE PALESTINIAN DEATH PENALTY LAW WITH CHAMPAGNE

If you’re not totally drowning in the propaganda Kool Aid, it’s almost impossible not to shudder at the news coming out of Israel every day, and sometimes on the hour. But today’s appalling news includes an incredibly disturbing piece, that Israel’s parliament (the Knesset), just passed a law of a new death penalty, for Palestinians in particular. And while you can find laws all over the world that seem rationale on paper that are actually horrific in practice, this new Palestinian-only death penalty law might as well have been written in Yitzhak Rabin’s blood. It just took a few decades to get it on paper. And Israel’s ultra-right Knesset members just celebrated the new law with champagne.

PALESTINIANS HAVE A 99+% CONVICTION RATE, AND THERE ARE A LOT OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS

So what is this new law? The formalization that Israel can, ostensibly legally, execute any Palestinian who was convicted of murdering Israelis. And given that Palestinians see an over 99% conviction rate in Israeli courts, this license to kill is particularly bloodthirsty. But the details only get darker. Currently, Israel holds holds 1,357 sentenced prisoners, 3,398 remand(ed) detainees and 3,442 administrative detainees held without trial, and also holds 1249 people as “unlawful combatants.” Hundreds, if not more, of these prisoners are children; Israel has convicted 500-700 Palestinian children every year for over a decade. And now the death penalty, by hanging, could apply to many or most of these prisoners.

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ISRAEL’S LAST DEATH PENALTY EXECUTION WAS A NAZI WAR CRIMINAL IN 1962

This means that an Israeli court, which has no legal jurisdiction over people who are not Israeli citizens, can decide on the definition of murder, brand any Palestinian a terrorist, and enact the death penalty by hanging. No independent review or oversight, from courts that convict Palestinians almost 100% of the time. Israel hasn’t executed anyone since the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in 1962, and has supported abolishing the death penalty at the UN for years. But now? Now, the same people who want to annex the West Bank are drinking champagne to celebrate killing Palestinian children in custody.

In the last 3 days, Israel has killed at least 14 Palestinian children in Gaza.