Israel ‘s death penalty petition needs help to hit 100k signatures

As we’ve reported, Israel has passed a law which will permit them to execute Palestinian prisoners. In response to this, Katharina Amanda Adler created a petition on the Parliament website. Should this petition hit 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for a debate in Parliament. Currently, it’s fast approaching that target:

You can sign the petition here.

Drop the law

The petition contains the following message:

The UK Government must act urgently to urge the Israeli Government to stop the proposed law which would permit the execution of Palestinian Prisoners, past, present and future.

We believe that such a law would constitute complete violation of the Geneva Convention and International Human Rights Law. UN experts have called for these proposals to be dropped.

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We call on the UK Government apply considerable and substantial political pressure and the leverage of its international obligations to prevent the Israeli Government from passing this law.

Novara’s Rivkah Brown highlighted the following:

She added:

Now, how did we get to the point where it was acceptable to say that an Israeli court might “deviate from the rules of evidence” when trying 7 October prisoners? Well, military courts have been bending the rules of evidence for some time, hence their 95%+ conviction rate.

But this bill’s evidence-bending has a much more specific context. Since 7 October, pro/Israeli academic and legal groups have been creating a body of literature claiming that 7 October is unlike any other conflict situation, because so much evidence was destroyed.

This, they say, means the rules of evidence should be suspended. But the absence or destruction of forensic evidence is always a problem in conflict situations, not just 7 October. This is Jewish-Israeli exceptionalism extended into the legal sphere.

Israeli politicians celebrated the passing of the law in the most obscene fashion imaginable:

Israel — Call it what it is

The UK’s Green Party are among those calling out the new law:

With the Greens out-performing Labour in the polls now, this could put pressure on Keir Starmer to actually do something for once.

And remember, you can sign the petition here.

Featured image via The Cradle