Netanyahu Regime Backs Death Penalty for Palestinian Political Prisoners
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Cold-blooded murder of defenseless Palestinians has been official Israeli policy from inception.
Its 1947-48 ethnic cleansing war of independence indiscriminately raped and massacred countless thousands of defenseless Palestinians, displacing hundreds of thousands from their historic homeland – one of history’s great crimes, accountability never forthcoming.
Knesset members are debating whether to authorize capital punishment against Palestinian political prisoners – guilty only of wanting to live free from oppressive Israeli occupation, their legal right under international law.
On Tuesday, Israeli war minister Lieberman vowed to get legislation passed, tweeting:
“After over three years of a stubborn struggle, the death penalty for terrorists (sic) law will finally be brought to the law committee (on November 14). We won’t relent or stop until completing the mission.”
Israel calls legitimate nonviolent Palestinian resistance terrorism and/or incitement. If the death penalty bill is enacted, countless numbers of Palestinian political prisoners could face capital punishment for exercising their legal rights.
The world community is doing nothing to intervene against it, dismissive of Palestinian rights, one-sidedly supporting Israel, ignoring its highest of high crimes.
Under current Israeli law, a three-judge military court panel must unanimously approve capital punishment for Palestinians. They’re denied civil due process and judicial fairness, available only for Jews, one of the core features of apartheid rule.
New legislation would require only a majority military judicial ruling in capital punishment cases. Israel last pronounced the death penalty in 1962 for Adolph Eichmann, an exception to its 1954 law prohibiting it except for certain reasons. See below.
Palestinian Prisoners Society director Qadura Fares earlier said Israel’s capital punishment legislation if enacted will “be imposed on Palestinian prisoners only” in military courts, not Israeli Jews for similar offenses in civil courts.
Netanyahu backs the measure, pushing for it to be enacted, rejecting opposition from Shin Bet security service chief Nadav Argaman, saying he’s “unequivocally” against it.
Last Sunday, Netanyahu approved advancing the measure for Knesset debate, according to Israel Radio.
Although already allowed in cases of treason and crimes of war, against humanity, and against the Jewish people, Eichmann’s hanging was the only time it was ever used.
If Netanyahu, Lieberman, and likeminded Knesset extremists get their way, that may be about to change, another pretext to eliminate Palestinian political prisoners – world community outrage highly unlikely.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
