Eight countries condemn Israel’s one-sided death penalty for Palestinians

The Muslim-majority nations denounce Israel’s ‘increasingly discriminatory’ practices that ‘entrench a system of apartheid’.

Eight ⁠Muslim-majority countries have issued a joint statement that “strongly ⁠condemned” Israel’s one-sided bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks.

Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, ⁠Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, ⁠and the United Arab Emirates condemned “increasingly discriminatory, escalating Israeli practices that entrench a system of apartheid”, according to the joint statement released by Islamabad on Thursday.

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Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed the controversial bill on Monday, a one-sided law that will not impose the same penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of killings.

Its passage marks a major victory for Israel’s far right, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir having pushed for its enactment as one of the main conditions of his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party’s coalition agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The eight countries also expressed “deep concern” over the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, warning of mounting risks amid reports of “ongoing abuses, including torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, starvation, and the denial of basic rights”.

The statement read that these practices reflect a “broader pattern of violations against the Palestinian people”.

The countries also cautioned against measures by Israel that risk further inflaming tensions on the ground.

The law has also been criticised by the United Nations and the European Union; however, Israel’s ally, the United States, came out in support of its “sovereign right to determine its own laws”.

Israel has applied the death penalty twice since its founding.

It has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinians has soared since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in 2023.

Analysts have said that under international law, Israel’s parliament should not be legislating in the West Bank, which is not sovereign Israeli territory, despite the best efforts of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition to annex the territory to Israel.