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The law cleared on Monday (March 30) by the Knesset mandates the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of lethal acts of terrorism under Israeli criminal and military law, while excluding Jews convicted of killing Palestinians. The law is appalling, yet it represents a natural continuation of Israel’s evolution into a single, murderous apartheid state on both sides of the Green Line – within its sovereign territory and in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Beyond the fact that the death penalty should have long been abolished worldwide, the approved law clearly violates multiple provisions of international conventions binding on Israel. These include, among others: the Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention (IV) on respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907); the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984); and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1966) (CERD).

The implementation of this law would constitute war crimes and, potentially, crimes against humanity, as defined under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998).

The new law represents a dramatic formal shift.........

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