Michael Abrahams | Israel’s Palestinian purge prescription

On March 30, 1976, Israeli police killed six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured over 100 others while they were protesting the state’s confiscation of nearly 5,000 acres of Palestinian land in Galilee. Since then, March 30 has been designated Land Day, a day commemorating the collective action and resistance of Palestinians against Israeli domination and oppression.

However, this year, on the 50th anniversary of Land Day, Israel’s parliament made a move to further demoralise Palestinians. It passed a law that would make the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly terror attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” to “negate the existence of the state of Israel”. Persons found guilty would be executed by hanging within 90 days, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days. The new law passed its third and final reading in the Knesset by 62 votes to 48, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voting in favour.

The legislation was initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir, who has previous convictions for supporting a terrorist organisation and for inciting racism, was among several lawmakers who wore lapel pins with gold nooses, symbolising the executions (replacing the yellow-ribbon lapel pins widely worn while Israeli hostages were held in Gaza), to the session. He also ostentatiously brandished a bottle of Champagne, which he later poured and shared with supporters, while gleefully declaring, “Soon we will count them one by one”.

STARK ILLUSTRATION

The new law is a stark illustration of the inequality of the legal systems applying to Palestinians and to Israelis. For instance, Palestinians are tried in military courts, and under the new law, those found guilty of killing Israelis will receive an automatic death penalty, with life imprisonment only available under extreme circumstances. And the conviction rates in these courts are exceedingly high. Of the Palestinians tried for offences committed in the occupied West Bank, 96 to 99 per cent are found guilty, with convictions often built on confessions extracted through torture and duress, with no jury or entitlement to pardon. And children are not exempt, as Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts.

On the other hand, Israeli settlers in the West Bank are tried in civilian courts in Israel, and Israel has not prosecuted any of its citizens for killing Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of this decade. According to the Israeli rights group, Yesh Din, conviction rates for settlers found guilty of committing crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) between 2005 and 2024 were about 3 per cent.

And Palestinians in the West Bank are attacked and killed by members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and by Jewish settlers with impunity. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed there since October 7, 2023, including over a dozen since the Iran War began on February 28, with settler violence being a major contributing factor. On March 15, just hours after Israeli settlers shot and killed Amir Moatasem Odeh, 28, in Qusra, south of Nablus, and stabbed and seriously wounded his father, Moatasem Awda, an undercover Border Police unit in the West Bank opened fire on a car carrying a father, mother and four children. Othman, 7, who reportedly had special needs and was blind, and Mohammed, 5, and their parents, Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, and Waad Othman Bani Odeh, 35, were killed after all were shot in the head and face. Two other sons, Khaled,12, and Mustafa, 8, were injured by shrapnel. Khaled said that after the shooting, a soldier took him out of the car, beat him and said, “We killed some dogs”.

DISCRIMINATORY

The law, which specifically targets one ethnic group, is manifestly discriminatory. Legal expert Amichai Cohen of the Israel Democracy Institute confirmed to the Associated Press that Jewish citizens would not face prosecution under the new law. Unsurprisingly, the legislation has been widely condemned, especially by human rights organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem, whose public outreach director Shai Parnes said, “It’s just going to be another tool in the Israeli toolkit to kill Palestinians.” Even before the vote, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement urging Israel to abandon the legislation.

The law’s legality is also being questioned. The Association of Civil Rights in Israel announced it had taken the matter to the country’s highest court minutes after the bill was approved, arguing that the measure was “discriminatory by design” and that lawmakers had no legal authority to impose it on Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, who are not Israeli citizens.

The death penalty for murder was outlawed in Israel in 1954. Only two people have been executed in the country’s 78-year history. Meir Tobianski was executed for treason in 1948 but was exonerated a year later, and Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, was hanged in 1962. Now Israel is seeking to make the execution of Palestinians a part of official state policy, becoming, ironically, the first state since Nazi Germany to codify death as a punishment reserved for one specific ethnic group. Not even apartheid South Africa did that. Over 90 Palestinians have died in custody since October 7, 2023, and approximately 9,500 remain detained under harsh conditions, with about half held under administrative detention or labelled “unlawful combatants”, denied trial and unable to defend themselves. Many of them could soon face execution.

The Supreme Court must now decide whether to hear the challenge to the bill. Regardless of the outcome, the passage of the law and the celebratory reaction it provoked are sobering testaments to the dehumanisation Palestinians in the occupied territories confront. We should all be outraged.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @mikeyabrahams