New Delhi: The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is set to discuss a controversial draft law that would legalize executing Palestinian prisoners, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Saturday.
“The Knesset will discuss on Monday preparations for the first reading of the death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners,” Gvir said, according to the Maariv newspaper.
In a preliminary reading last March, the Knesset approved the draft law that would allow courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis.
Gvir leads the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party that submitted the primary legislation, which was then supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The legislation was met with a wave of opposition by Palestinians. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group governing Gaza, said such policies would not stop Palestinians from exercising their right to resistance.
The Israeli regime detains more than 7,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including some 300 children and 72 women, according to Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Authority Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs. Fares said this number does not include prisoners from Gaza, which he said Israel refuses to disclose.
In February, UN experts expressed grave concern over the potential reinstatement of the death penalty.
“Such laws “suffer from a lack of legal precision, infringe on critically important rights, and appear not to meet the required thresholds of legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination under international law,” the statement said.
Israel abolished the death penalty in 1954. The death penalty law has been proposed in Israel more than once in recent years, but so far, the Knesset has refused to legislate it.
In order for the draft law to become effective, it will need to pass three readings in the Knesset.
Preceding the first reading, Gvir said the draft “is expected to receive support by all members of the Knesset.”
