Israeli executions against Palestinians have been enforced for decades; what will the new death penalty law add?

Apartheid Israel never ceases to display the depths of its racist treatment toward the Palestinian people. For decades, it has waged a systematic campaign of dehumanisation, oppression, and violence against them. The latest manifestation of this reality came on Monday evening, when the Israeli Knesset passed a bill in its first reading authorising the execution of Palestinians — particularly prisoners who already endure silent, slow executions through torture, abuse, and deliberate medical negligence.

Imagine a racist death penalty — a law that targets a certain group of people alone. This is not merely a debate about capital punishment; it is about institutionalised racial execution. Have we ever witnessed such a policy in the modern world? Criminal regimes usually attempt to conceal their crimes, but here we stand before one that brazenly declares them in public, unafraid of any consequence or accountability.

The passing of this bill revives Israel’s bloody record of executing Palestinians through torture, inhumane interrogation, and systematic medical neglect. According to Palestinian rights groups, 81 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, bringing the total number of confirmed prisoner deaths since 1967 to 318.

These are not mere statistics. They are lives, each with a story — stories of prisoners executed behind bars and in cold blood. In 1970, Sameeh Abu Hasaballah from Al-Nuseirat refugee camp was detained, tortured in Gaza Central Prison, and later taken in handcuffs by Israeli soldiers in a tank to his home, where he was executed in front of his mother.

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In 1988, in the Negev Prison, Israeli officers shot dead Asaad Al-Shawa and Bassam Al-Samoudi inside their prison tents, injuring more than 80 others under the pretext of chaos and unrest. In 2007, during a brutal raid by the notorious “Nahshon” unit on Negev Prison, prisoner Muhammad Al-Ashqar was shot in the head, and entire prison tents were set ablaze, also, under the pretext of “security.”

More recently, on 24 October 2023, Omar Daraghmeh, aged 58, died under torture by Israeli prison wardens. Palestinian rights groups confirmed he was in good health upon arrest earlier that month.

As for Palestinian detainees from Gaza, the full extent of the executions and abuses they face remains unclear. However, evidence has surfaced through the exchange of bodies between the Palestinian resistance and Israel in the past few weeks, revealing clear signs of torture and execution. Many of the bodies were so mutilated, to the extent that they were unidentifiable by their families — a gruesome testament to the horrors inflicted behind Israeli prison walls.

These crimes, and the policies enabling them, fall under the supervision of Israel’s fascist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who celebrated the passing of the execution bill by distributing sweets — an act that reveals the depraved mindset governing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Field executions: A policy already in practice

The death penalty is not new in Israel’s occupation policy — it is already being carried out in the streets and at checkpoints across the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli soldiers and settlers routinely execute Palestinians without provocation or threat, often at point-blank range.

Two well-documented cases exemplify this pattern. On 23 June 2020, Ahmad Erekat (26) was shot dead at the Israeli army’s “Container” checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem after his car collided with a barrier. Investigations by Al-Haq rights group and Human Rights Watch found no evidence he posed any threat and concluded that he was deliberately shot\executed.

On 25 November 2020, Nur Shqeir (36) was shot dead at the “a-Za’ayem” checkpoint east of occupied Jerusalem. Video evidence reviewed by the Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, showed he was unarmed, and that the use of lethal force was entirely unjustified and that it was an unlawful execution.

The new execution bill that Netanyahu’s government seeks to pass brings nothing new in practice. It merely legalizes what the occupation forces have been doing for decades — executing Palestinians in prisons, at checkpoints, and in their homes.

The Israeli occupation never waited for a law to kill. This bill only formalises an existing policy of state-sanctioned murder. It stands as yet another dark milestone in Israel’s colonial project and a witness of the unprecedented brutality and moral decay of a regime that is far away from any meaning of justice or humanity.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.