RAMALLAH, January 4, 2018 (WAFA) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Thursday condemned the Israeli Knesset‘s approval of the preliminary death penalty bill for Palestinian prisoners and described it "state terrorism".

It said in a press release it considers the bill an extension of Israel’s escalation of its arbitrary measures against Palestinians and grave violations of international law, conventions and protocols and the principles of human rights.

The ministry said this bill is not new to the Israeli government as it follows a series of racist laws, which only deepen settlers’ control of the government and extend the racist apartheid regime that Israel continues to establish and expand in Palestine, and with that clearly and explicitly targeting the land and the national and humanitarian presence in Palestine.

It held the Israeli government, headed by Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, full and direct responsibility for this bill, which might become a law, and its dangerous repercussions on the conflict.   

The ministry stressed that this bill, in addition to other laws such as the racist annexation law, has revealed the true face of an occupying state and proved wrong its claim of being the only democracy in the Middle East.

It called on the international community, the United Nations, and its specialized organizations, to prevent the adoption of this brutal and inhumane law, which violently and vigorously violates the basic rights of the Palestinian people.

M.H.