ISRAEL'S NEW DEATH PENALTY BILL 'TARGETS PALESTINIANS'
A bill to amend subsisting legislation regulating the utilization of
the death sentence passed its preliminary reading in Israel's parliament, the
Knesset, on Wednesday with backing from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's ruling coalition.
Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the
Knesset, told media on Friday that while the bill does not specify any group,
it is "intended mainly for the Palestinian people".
"It's not going to be implemented against Jews who are committing
terrorist attacks against Palestinians for sure," she said, describing the
bill's authors as "extreme right".
"This is a fascist bill, contributing to an atmosphere of fascism
inside Israeli society, which is directed towards Palestinians."
Under subsisting laws, Israel's civilian courts reserve the utilization
of the death penalty for Nazis and Nazi collaborators convicted of committing
murder during the Holocaust, while military courts can hand out the sentence if
a panel of three judges unanimously concurs to issue the penalization.
The proposed changes will integrate an additional clause to Israel's penal law,
sanctioning the death penalty to be used against those convicted of
"terrorist activity", which is defined by the bill as "a deliberate
endeavor to murder civilians in order to achieve political, national, religious
or ideological objectives."
It will remove the requirement for military court panels to unanimously
agree on issuing the punishment, instead requiring a simple majority of two of
the three judges.
The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity. It constitutes inhuman & degrading treatment, does not have any proven deterrent effect & allows judicial errors to become irreversible & fatal.— EU in Israel (@EUinIsrael) January 3, 2018
When asked by Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad Tibi on Wednesday about
whether the law would apply to Jews who carry out attacks, such as "those
who burned the children in Duma", Netanyahu replied: "In principle,
affirmative."
Tibi's reference was to a 2015 arson attack carried out by a Jewish
settler in the occupied West Bank village of Duma, which left three
Palestinians, including a one-year-old baby, dead and another child earnestly
wounded.
Dawoud Yusef of the Palestinian rights group Addameer, which advocates
for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, cast doubt on Netanyahu's assertion
that the move would withal apply to Jews.
"What we've optically discerned in the past is that Avigdor
Lieberman has been pushing for this as a component of his acquiescent to join
Netanyahu's coalition," Yusef verbally expressed, referencing Netanyahu's defense
minister and hard-right coalition partner.
"He's emerge and verbally expressed that this will only apply to
Arabs. When he verbalizes Arabs, we surmise he betokens Palestinian denizens of
Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."
PARTIAL JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Lieberman, whose party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) put forward
the bill, has in the past advocated the utilization of the death penalty
against "Arab terror", and in a Facebook post about the bill on Wednesday,
the minister declared: "Jewish blood is not cheap."
Yusef said if the bill ends up passing, it would represent a
"slippery slope".
"We authentically visually perceive this as a pandering to the
extreme elements in the Israeli government and we're not sure in the current
climate, where that's going to culminate."
Given Israel's position as occupying power, its biased judicial system against Palestinians, and precedence over the years, such a bill can only be read to target Palestinians who Israel characterises as terrorists, a term whose definition in Israel is so broad and encompassing.MAHA ABDULLAH, LEGAL RESEARCHER AT AL HAQ
Maha Abdullah of the Palestinian human rights organisation, Al Haq,
told Al Jazeera it would further compound Israel's hold over the occupied
territories.
"It should be noted that most Palestinian political detainees are
endeavored by Israeli military courts," she verbally expressed.
"Given Israel's position as occupying potency, its partial
judicial system against Palestinians, and precedence over the years, such a
bill can only be read to target Palestinians who Israel characterizes as
terrorists, a term whose definition in Israel is so broad and encompassing."
While Israel has a long history of carrying out targeted assassinations
of its opponents, judicial executions are very infrequent.
In 1948, the Israeli army court-martialed and executed Meir Tobianski
after incriminations that he had passed on perspicacity to the Jordanian army,
but the officer was later posthumously exonerated of the charges.
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