Military order means Palestinians in occupied West Bank will endure harsher death penalty regime

West Bank — As part of its ongoing genocidal campaign against Palestinians, the Israeli occupation passed the Death Penalty Law on 30 March.

Death by hanging, but only for Palestinians

This mandates death by hanging for so-called “terrorism related” offences, and applies only to Palestinians and to crimes committed after the legislation was passed.

Five human rights organisations, together with several Arab members of the Israeli Knesset, are challenging this law before the Supreme Court. They claim it is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and incompatible with international law.

Miriam Azem, International Advocacy Coordinator at Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, tells the Canary:

Adalah petitioned immediately to the Supreme Court. Part of our main argument is that the Knesset, which has no sovereignty and authority over the occupied territory, cannot legislate over the occupied population in the West Bank.

The Israeli occupation’s West Bank military commander, Avi Bluth, who recently boasted “We are killing like we haven’t since 1967,” issued a military order on 17 May. This brought the law into effect in the occupied West Bank, but went significantly further than the Death Penalty Law passed in March.

Military order increases opportunities for “Israel” to kill Palestinians in West Bank

Bluth has expanded the definition of crimes eligible for execution, shifted the burden of proof to the defendant and created a wider, more arbitrary, and more extreme death penalty regime in the West Bank military court system than even the law itself.

“Acts of terrorism” now include killings carried out “with the aim of negating the existence of the State of Israel or the authority of the military commander in the area”.

Adalah, along with other human rights organisations, has now sent an urgent letter to the relevant Israeli authorities, demanding the immediate cancellation of the military order. Azem says:

Almost any resistance to occupation in the occupied West Bank could be considered by an Israeli court as undermining the sovereignty in the West Bank. This is an incredibly broad and vague definition that doesn’t comply with any criminal standards. It is very unclear phrasing, and having that in a criminal code is illegal and egregious. Having that in a criminal code that allows for the death penalty is just completely outrageous.

West Bank — The occupation’s death penalty law for Palestinians is illegal

The military order also introduces legal presumptions that spare the prosecution from having to prove the elements that elevate an intentional killing to a death penalty offence: if a weapon was used, or if the accused belongs to what the Israeli occupation deems an “unlawful association”, those elements are taken as given.

According to Azem, the Death Penalty Law is illegal for several reasons. Firstly, it is illegal to apply “Israeli” law in the occupied territory. Secondly, the military commander in the West Bank, under international humanitarian law, is obliged to prioritise the benefit of the occupied population, which this type of legislation does not do. In addition, this law enters a military court system which lacks fair trials, and uses secret evidence and arbitrary detention. It also relies on confessions obtained through psychological and physical torture. She argues:

The military system in the West Bank is so fundamentally unjust. Because it enters such a system, any death penalty to be rendered from such a process is inherently unlawful under international law. It is quasi mandatory, extremely vague, and targets only one population group — it has very clear apartheid characteristics. It really violates international law on so many different grounds. Adalah demands its immediate cancellation, and if this doesn’t happen we will go to court.

New military tribunal has authority to impose death penalty on 7 October 2023 Resistance fighters

The Knesset also passed, 93-0, new legislation on 11 May establishing a special military tribunal in Jerusalem to prosecute Palestinians from Gaza accused of 7 October 2023 attacks. Mass trials are permitted, the tribunal has the authority to impose the death penalty, and its proceedings will be livestreamed for all to see.

As national security minister Ben-Gvir claims “The death penalty law for [Palestinian] detainees applies to 80% of them”, there are growing fears that the Israeli occupation will target as many Palestinian detainees as possible.

Numerous UN General Assembly resolutions and international legal bodies recognise the right of peoples to self-determination and to struggle against foreign domination and colonial rule. This includes Palestinians, who are legally entitled to resist military occupation.

Featured image via Erik Marmor/Getty Images

By Charlie Jaay

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