Al-Azhar urges halt to Israeli measures to legalise killing of Palestinians

Al-Azhar, the top Islamic Sunni institute in Egypt, said on Tuesday it strongly regretted what it described as the failure of the international legal system to confront Israel’s move to approve a law allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners. It called on the international community to act quickly to stop what it said were efforts by Tel Aviv to legalise the killing of Palestinians.

The statement came a day after the Knesset passed the legislation by 62 votes to 48, with one abstention, amid celebrations among right-wing parties.

Al-Azhar said it “deeply regrets and strongly condemns the collapse of the international legal system and its inability to confront the Zionist occupation’s approval of a bill to implement the death penalty against Palestinian prisoners and detainees”.

It added that the move “once again exposes the bloody face of this occupation, which has not been satisfied with its ongoing crimes, but is now seeking to legalise killing and grant it a false and exposed legislative cover”.

Al-Azhar stressed its “categorical rejection of all measures or decisions issued by the occupation aimed at legalising the killing of Palestinians”.

It said the decision was “a desperate attempt to give a legal character to killing, which does not change its reality, and reflects a state of brutality and moral breakdown, as well as a violation of all human values”.