Israel’s parliament passes death penalty bill targeting Palestinians

Palestinian Authority calls the bill a ‘war crime’ against Palestinians, says it breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention.Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a controversial bill that will instruct military courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of “terror”, but will not impose the same penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of kiling Palestinians.The law, which enters into effect within 30 days, was approved on Monday in the 120-seat Knesset by 62 lawmakers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with 48 voting against it and one abstention.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3European nations criticise Israel’s death penalty planslist 2 of 3Israel wants to execute Palestinians, and the world will allow itlist 3 of 3After dozens died in Israeli jails, death penalty law rattles Palestiniansend of listIts passage marks a major victory for Israel’s far right, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir having pushed for its enactment as one of the main conditions of his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party’s coalition agreement with Netanyahu.The Palestinian Authority called the bill “a war crime against the Palestinian people”, saying that it breached the Fourth Geneva Convention, “particularly the protections it guarantees for individuals and the safeguards for fair trials”.The new law, introduced as Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza continues, instructs military courts trying only West Bank Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens, to impose the draconian sentence for lethal attacks on Israelis.Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel-democracy-institute" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="80873" data-entity-type="organization">Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, told the Associated Press that “Jews will not be indicted under this law”.Under international law, he noted, Israel’s parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory in spite of the best efforts of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition to annex the territory to Israel.