On Sunday, news outlets across Israel revealed the finalised plans by the Zionist regime to carry out executions of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
These plans include establishing a dedicated execution facility, the formation of specialised execution teams along with enforcing strict isolation measures for those Palestinians sentenced to death by military courts.
The plans detail the exact method of execution by hanging with three prison guards pressing execution buttons simultaneously.
Palestinian abductees would be kept fully isolated from fellow inmates while the Zionist regime also plans to implement executions within 90 days from the final judgement.
The detailed plans follow the publication last month of the final draft bill that entrenches the death penalty as yet another weapon of the Israeli state against Palestinian prisoners.
This bill, pushed by extreme right-wing national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party, states that any Palestinian found guilty of killing an Israeli citizen out of racial or national hostility, or with intent to harm the State of Israel and the Jewish people in their land shall be sentenced to death as the only punishment.
Once death sentence has been passed it cannot be reduced or commuted.
This new law only applies to Palestinians, it does not apply to Zionist settlers who have carried out increasing attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank under the protection of IOF troops, or to any Israeli who kills Palestinians.
The fact that this bill grants virtual immunity to Zionists accused of similar crimes from the same punishment inflicted on Palestinians reinforces Israel’s dual legal system rooted in racial and national discrimination.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) said the legislation ‘legitimises extrajudicial killings’ and exposes Israel’s systematic abuse of it role as an occupying power, particularly given the thousands of Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Abdullah al-Zaghari, a PPC official, described the bill as a ‘dangerous escalation’, saying: ‘This law entrenches a policy of slow execution that Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to for years through torture, medical neglect, starvation and systematic assaults,’ adding: ‘It transfers Israel’s crimes from the realm of practice into that of official legislation.’
Palestinian resistance factions have strongly condemned the approval of the law and the execution plans.
Hamas described the legislation as an extension of ‘Israel’s racist and criminal policies’ which legalises organised mass killings by the Zionists.
Hamas called on the international community, the UN and human rights organisations to condemn these measures, impose sanctions on the Israeli state and form committees to investigate and monitor conditions in Israeli prisons where systematic torture has already caused many deaths.
The resistance group Islamic Jihad labelled the law ‘a dangerous escalation in the ongoing extermination and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,’ noting that the Zionist regime’s dual legal system punishes Palestinians while granting immunity to illegal settlers and Israeli forces in violation of international laws.
The bill has to pass a third stage in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) before becoming law, but the revelations about detailed plans for the judicial murder of Palestinian prisoners and abductees demonstrates the confidence of the Zionist regime in securing its passage.
Hassan Breijieh, from the Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission, warned the intention is ‘to erase international recognition of the Palestinian fighter… and turn him into a criminal defendant.’
With the complete backing from Trump and US imperialism the Zionist regime is confident it can ignore the UN, tear up all international laws and carry on its genocidal war to drive Palestinians from their land.
Palestinians have shown they will never surrender to Zionist occupation, and their resistance has won the support of tens of millions of workers and youth across the world.
The time has come for the working class in the US, UK and Europe to take up the call for action by mobilising its strength to bring down their genocide-enabling capitalist governments, replacing them with workers governments and socialism – putting an end to capitalist barbarism with the victory of the world socialist revolution.
