Israel's death penalty law draws criticism

JERUSALEM — Israel's parliament passed a law on Monday making death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks, fulfilling a pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right allies.

The law would only apply to Palestinians convicted of murder whose attacks aimed at "ending Israel's existence", meaning it would mete out the death penalty for Palestinians but not for Jewish Israelis who committed similar crimes, critics say. The legislation has drawn criticism of Israel, which is already under scrutiny for violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and its fighting in Gaza.

The measure includes provisions requiring execution by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with some allowance for a delay but no right to clemency. It provides the option of imposing a life sentence instead of capital punishment, but only in unspecified "special circumstances".

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only person executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962. Military courts in the West Bank can already sentence Palestinian convicts to death but have not done so.

The measure was promoted by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister who wore noose-shaped lapel pins in the run-up to the vote.

"This is a day of justice for the murdered, a day of deterrence for enemies," Ben-Gvir said in parliament. "Whoever chooses terror chooses death."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the legislation as a breach of international law and a doomed bid meant to intimidate Palestinians.

"Such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness," Abbas' office said.

"Nor will they deter them from continuing their legitimate struggle for freedom, independence, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians to launch attacks in protest against the law.

Israel's leading rights groups decried the law as "an act of institutionalized discrimination and racist violence against Palestinians". The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said it filed an appeal against the law with Israel's Supreme Court.

The law is the latest action by Netanyahu's coalition to raise concerns among Israel's allies, who have also been critical of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

A group of UN experts said the bill includes vague definitions of "terrorist".

Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, the outgoing head of the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, said on Tuesday that he wanted an investigation into the killing of UNRWA staff members.

Speaking at a news conference on the last day of his job as UNRWA commissioner-general, he condemned the fact that "more than 390" of the agency's staff members had been killed since the start of the conflict.

Agencies Via Xinhua