As Palestine’s national day on November 15 and the 34th consecutive Friday of the Great March of Return set for the next day approach, Palestinians in Gaza look set to be handed an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, look set to face the death penalty if they are convicted of “terrorism”.
The Great March of Return, in which Gazans march every Friday to demand the right of return to the lands they were expelled from, has been notable for the horrific rate of deaths and injuries inflicted on protesters by Israeli snipers — and iconic images of the Palestinian flag being waved defiantly by protesters. In the West Bank, you run the risk of being arrested for carrying or displaying the flag.
Israeli politicians are hardly shy in calling for harsh punishments for Palestinians — and their calls are treated by Israeli settlers as permission to harass, attack and occasionally kill Palestinians. But a law proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marks a potential turning point in what Israel legally allows itself to do to Palestinians.
Israel routinely uses “administrative detention” (jailing without trail), treats Palestinian prisoners appallingly, hands down prison sentences of up to 20 years for “crimes” such as throwing stones “with intent” and has an almost total lack of prosecutions against Israeli soldiers and settlers who kill Palestinians. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the next logical step would be an actual death penalty reserved for Palestinians.
Israeli law already contains a death penalty for certain crimes, but no one has been executed since 1962. The bill to introduce a death penalty specifically for Palestinians is expected to pass its first Knesset reading in coming days.
Read the article by Lisa Gleeson in Green Left Weekly.