Tel Aviv, MINA– An Israeli Knesset committee advanced a bill on Sunday to allow the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners accused by Tel Aviv of carrying out attacks, Anadolu Agency reported.
By a 4-1 vote, the Knesset National Security Committee approved the bill, authored by the far-right Jewish Power Party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for its first reading, Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported.
The decision came despite a request from Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for prisoners and missing persons in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, to delay the debate to avoid endangering the lives of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
The bill, which requires three readings to become law, has been strongly condemned by Palestinian rights organizations. The Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society denounced it as “unprecedented savagery,” warning that it would legalize what they called “systematic crimes” against detainees.
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“Israel is acting above the law and beyond accountability,” the groups said, pointing to the ongoing war in Gaza, where more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
Originally included in coalition agreements between Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party, the bill had already passed a preliminary reading in March 2023.
If enacted, the law would permit the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in cases defined by Tel Aviv as “racist or hate-motivated crimes.”
According to Palestinian figures, Israel is currently detaining about 11,100 Palestinians, including 53 women, around 400 children, 3,577 administrative detainees, and more than 2,600 from Gaza classified as “unlawful combatants.” []
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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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