ON MONDAY, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, approved the first reading of a bill that allows the Zionist regime to legally pass the death penalty for Palestinians held in captivity.
This bill, passed by 39 votes to 16, will now be referred to the Knesset’s National Security Committee for the final two readings before becoming law.
This bill has long been pushed by the extreme-right wing Jewish Power party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security Minister, but in the past has been held back by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the grounds that it could endanger the lives of Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza.
Out of fear of the repercussions from the families of these captives, Netanyahu put the brake on Ben-Gvir’s drive for the judicial murder of Palestinians to become law.
But with the release of those being held, under the terms of Trump’s ‘ceasefire’ agreement, this barrier has been removed and a delighted Ben-Gvir handed out sweets in celebration of the Knesset’s approval of the law that imposes the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners.
This bill states that anyone found guilty of killing an Israeli citizen out of racial or national hostility, or with the intent to harm the State of Israel and the Jewish people in their land, shall be sentenced to death as the only punishment.
The proposal also changes the rules by allowing military courts to impose death sentences with a simple majority of judges instead of requiring a unanimous decision.
Furthermore, once a final death sentence is issued it cannot be reduced or commuted.
The proposed new law does not extend to Zionist settlers who have continued to attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank under the protection of Israeli Occupation Force troops, or to any Israeli who kills Palestinians.
The proposed bill was condemned by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas who said it ‘embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation’.
Hamas called for ‘the formation of international committees to enter Israeli prisons and examine the conditions of Palestinian detainees.’
Since October 2023, thousands of Palestinians have been arbitrarily seized by Israeli forces in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, with at least 10,000 being held with strict bans on visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Yesterday, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, released a statement saying that evidence suggests Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to torture by the Zionist regime since February 2024.
The Zionist regime has no intention of allowing any independent entities, including lawyers and the Red Cross, to enter their hell-hole prisons and report back on the well documented regime of torture and extra-judicial murder that it has unleashed on Palestinians.
In a statement yesterday, Hamas condemned the approval of the bill as an extension of Israel’s ‘racist and criminal policy’ saying its passing was an ‘attempt to legalise the systematic mass killing against our Palestinian people living under occupation.’
The statement concluded: ‘We call on the international community, the UN, and all the rights groups to condemn this dangerous, racist occupation “legislation”, impose deterrent sanctions on the rogue Zionist entity, and pressure it to rescind this bill.’
No surprise that this coincides with the desperate attempt by the right-wing press to whip the BBC into line with accusations that it ‘minimises Israeli suffering’ and paints ‘Israel as the aggressor’.
The millions of workers and youth in the UK have no doubt as to who the racist murderous aggressors are – namely the Zionist regime that is being armed and supported by the Labour government determined to keep quiet about all the war crimes and genocide being committed against Palestinians.
Now is the time for the working class to answer the call made by the Palestinian resistance movement by demanding the TUC call a general strike to bring down the Starmer government and end all complicity with genocide by going forward to a workers government that will immediately recognise the Independent State of Palestine and provide it with all the support required for victory.
This is the way forward.
