The death penalty is morally repugnant. How much more so, then, when it is made the default, must be speedily carried out, cannot be subject to clemency, and is blatantly discriminatory – not merely in practice but inherently. The law passed by Israel’s Knesset on Monday is worded to effectively apply only to Palestinians, entrenching what many – including domestic rights groups, legal scholars and the international court of justice – have identified as practices amounting to apartheid. In setting out law for the illegally occupied West Bank, it is also annexationist. “Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime,” said the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk.
Execution will be the default for Palestinians found guilty of lethal attacks deemed as terrorist acts in the West Bank’s military courts – which have a conviction rate of around 96%. Amnesty International says that the system routinely relies on evidence extracted through torture and abuse. The death sentence will be imposed even if prosecutors do not seek it. Convictions need no longer be unanimous. There is no possibility of pardon. Executions must take place within 90 days. Within Israeli civilian courts, the new law imposes the death penalty for deliberately killing a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel”. Life imprisonment can only substitute in unspecified “special” circumstances.
