HAIFA, Wednesday, November 14, 2018 (WAFA) - As an Israeli parliamentary committee prepares to debate the first draft of the "Death Penalty for Terrorists" bill, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said on Wednesday it fears the bill is intended for Palestinians only, demanding that it be struck down for violating international law and Israel‘s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
An Adalah press release said the Israeli parliament’s, Knesset, Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee was slated to discuss the bill on Wednesday.
Adalah sent a letter on Tuesday to committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky demanding that he shelve the bill.
In his letter to Slomiansky, Adalah Attorney Rabea Eghbariah argued that the death penalty is an example of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and therefore contradicts the spirit of international law and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
Eghbariah also stressed that most of the countries of the world – certainly the democracies amongst them – have completely prohibited the imposition of the death penalty. Moreover, the death penalty does not serve the declared purpose of the bill: multiple studies consistently attest to the failure of the death penalty in serving as deterrence.
Further, the legislation of a death penalty in Israel could potentially lead – vis a vis its practical application – to discrimination based on ethnicity and national belonging. The law would be imposed by the Knesset on the Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank – in contradiction of the provisions of international law – and would create different norms of application on Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
Adalah Attorney Eghbariah said, "At a time when countries around the world are ridding themselves of the death penalty, Israel is seeking to legitimize it. This is a draconian bill that is not only futile in its declared purpose of creating a deterrent effect, but contradicts core legal rights and is overtly aimed at Palestinians exclusively."
M.K.
