United Staff for Gaza

Today, The Hague Group convened 40 states for a legal briefing on Israel’s new death penalty law for Palestinians (and not for Israelis). This new law, voted in the Knesset on March 30, is the latest chapter in Israel’s increasingly horrific Apartheid. The meeting was held under strict Chatham House rules, so I’ll just share a a few considerations: Israel’s new law establishes the death penalty by hanging which will be determined by military courts in the West Bank or civilian courts in Israel. The law introduces the imposition of a mandatory death penalty for certain crimes, whether or not the prosecution has requested the death penalty in the first place. The law precludes pardons, and establishes that executions must take place within 90 days of the sentence. Israel’s military courts, of course, are not transparent. They both operate in secrecy and rely on secret evidence. These trials therefore are not fair trials. It’s very important to understand these executions will amount to war crimes, especially given the military occupation Palestinians are subjected to. The judiciaries (including judges and prosecutors) involved in the commission of these war crimes will therefore be potentially subjected to international prosecution. Moreover, it is already clear that the new death penalty law will add force to the case for genocidal intent that is at the core of South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel under the Genocide convention. ohchr.org/en/press-releases/…