Bethlehem: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has given a nod for Death Penalty Bill which would make it easier for courts to hand death sentences to Palestinians who have killed Israelis or soldiers.
Though Israel has a law permitting the death penalty, under the law death penalty may only be imposed by unanimous decision from a panel of three judges. However, no executions have been carried out since 1962.
The bill in question was proposed by Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which Netanyahu backed yesterday.
This bill would remove the requirement of approval by a panel of three judges, allowing both civilian and military courts to execute Palestinians with a majority decision.
To prepare the legislation for its first reading in the Knesset, the bill is expected to be brought up at the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in the next few days.
As reported by Israeli news sites, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, approved passing a bill into law that allows execution of Palestinian prisoners on Sunday.
According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, currently there are 5,640 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons, of whom 465 are in administrative detention, 53 are female prisoners, 270 are child prisoners, and 50 are under the age of 16.
Source: siasat.com, Rasia, November 7, 2018
Israeli Knesset Renews Debate on Passing Death Sentence on Palestinians
Israel’s Parliament will renew debate next week on a bill that would make it easier to sentence Palestinian attackers to death, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday, while vowing to have it passed.
“After over three years of a stubborn struggle, the death penalty for terrorists will finally be brought to the law committee next Wednesday [Nov. 14], and then for its first reading in the Knesset plenum,” Lieberman said on Twitter.
“We won’t relent or stop until completing the mission.”
The bill, which passed a preliminary vote by the full Parliament in January, would ease the requirements military courts in the occupied West Bank must meet to sentence Palestinians convicted of “terrorist” crimes to death.
As the law stands now, a panel of three military judges must unanimously approve any death penalty in military courts.
The new bill, planned by members of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party at his behest, would change the requirement to a majority instead of unanimity.
Israel has not carried out any executions since 1962, when the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.
Israel abolished the use of capital punishment for murder in civil courts in 1954, though it can still in theory be applied for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, treason and crimes against the Jewish people.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his support for the death penalty in certain cases.
A law to sentence Palestinian attackers to death was one of Lieberman’s election promises back in 2015.
Israeli elections are expected to be called in the coming months and politicians have been ramping up campaign rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian woman Tuesday, after she allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli border police officer, in the second such incident in 48 hours in the occupied West Bank.
The woman was arrested after attempting to stab an officer with “a knife and scissors,” Israel police foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement.
She was shot and wounded in the leg, according to reports.
The alleged attempted attack is said to have taken place at a gas station in Mishor Adumim, an industrial park in an Israeli settlement around 20 kilometers east of occupied Jerusalem.
A separate police statement identified the woman as a 37-year-old Palestinian from Yatta, a town south of Hebron.
In a photo posted to Rosenfield’s Twitter page, a pair of scissors and a blade can be seen lying on the floor next to a pair of women’s shoes.
This is the second such incident to occur in two days in the West Bank, after Israeli soldiers Monday shot and wounded a Palestinian man in Hebron who they said was “attempting to stab civilians” as well as an army officer.
He was then taken for medical treatment. The incident took place near Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement east of Hebron.
On Oct. 22, a Palestinian man was shot dead in the West Bank by the Israeli army, which said he was attempting to stab soldiers.
Source: albawaba.com, The Daily Star, November 7, 2018
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde