Palestinian shops and public institutions were closed across the West Bank on Wednesday in protest of a law the Knesset passed this week mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist acts.

In the territory’s main Palestinian cities of Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus, most stores were closed with their shutters down at midday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party had called for a general strike the previous day, when protests took place in the West Bank opposing the law.

In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, entire shopping centers were closed on Wednesday, as well as the city’s main market.

About 150 people gathered to march against the law backed by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“It’s a crazy law to be passed, it’s insane,” said Mohammed Gussein, a 24-year-old student at Al-Quds University, which, like all Palestinian universities, was on strike Wednesday.

“It’s completely out of touch with humanity, and completely racist,” he told AFP.

Riman, a 53-year-old psychologist from Ramallah, told AFP that “there isn’t a single person standing here who doesn’t have a brother, a husband, a son, or even a neighbor in prison. There is no Palestinian family without a prisoner.”

“Time is running out and silence is deadly,” read the signs carried by protesters in Nablus on Tuesday, which showed an animation of a prisoner wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf next to a noose. “Stop the law to execute prisoners, before it’s too late.”

Under the new law, Palestinians in the West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as terrorism will be mandated to face the death penalty.

The law effectively enshrines capital punishment for Palestinians alone, as it explicitly excludes Israeli citizens or residents, and only Palestinians are tried in military courts. Israelis are tried in civilian courts.

Though a separate provision allows courts to impose the death penalty on anyone, including Israeli citizens, it applies only to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — a definition designed to exclude Jewish terrorists.

The Palestinian Authority and rights groups condemned the measure, saying it violated international law, while Palestinian terror groups urged further attacks to retaliate for the legislation.

On social media, Palestinians shared images of tires being burnt in protest of the law at the Qalandiya checkpoint, one of the West Bank’s busiest entry points into Israel via Jerusalem, on Wednesday.

In Gaza, dozens joined a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Red Cross, where women in hijabs, or headscarves, held up large framed photographs of well-known Palestinian terror convicts such as Marwan Barghouti.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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