Palestinian Bar Association: Israeli Death Penalty Bill is a Step Towards Legalizing Crime and an Extension of the Policy of Violating the Lives of Prisoners

SadaNews - The Palestinian Bar Association stated in a press release issued this afternoon that the death penalty bill approved by the security committee in the Israeli Knesset constitutes a dangerous precedent and a continuous decline in the legislative system of the occupying authorities, as it is an attempt to legalize and legislate an existing crime perpetrated by the occupation authorities for decades against Palestinian prisoners. The association affirmed that the approval of this bill comes within the context of a systematic escalation of the genocidal crimes faced by the Palestinian people, and an attempt to entrench policies of killing and execution, whether through field executions during arrests or through deliberate medical neglect that has led to the deaths of dozens of prisoners in the occupation's prisons. The association pointed out that what is happening is an official legislation of crime, amid the international community's failure to curb the ongoing egregious violations against prisoners, as the number of martyr prisoners since the outbreak of the war until early November 2025 has exceeded 81 martyrs, in addition to dozens of detainees from Gaza who were executed or are still forcibly disappeared. The Bar Association warned that passing the law in the Knesset constitutes a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the execution of prisoners and detainees under occupation, confirming that the occupying power is acting as an authority above accountability amid the international justice system's lapse and its inability to confront the severity of these crimes. The association called on bar associations around the world, human rights organizations, and international bodies to take a clear and unified stance against this dangerous legislation, and to adopt accountability as a humanitarian and legal approach in confronting complicity in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Bar Association concluded its statement by affirming that this project is nothing but an extension of the policy of slow execution practiced by the occupation against Palestinian prisoners, emphasizing the necessity to continue collective legal efforts in confronting this dangerous legislation and the crimes committed against the Palestinian people in front of the international public opinion.