Israel Updates Death Penalty Bill for Palestinians: 'Judicial Efficiency' for Occupied Lands
The Israeli government, under Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Ben-Gvir's specific encouragement, has published an updated draft for a death penalty bill aimed exclusively at Palestinians, explicitly naming those involved in the October 7th attack. This isn't newfound bloodlust; it's the latest iteration of a policy flirted with by previous right-wing governments, specifically by Netanyahu's
Likud in 2018. It's a bill designed not for justice, but for control within an enduring occupation, a thinly veiled acceleration of state violence against an occupied population. This 'updated' bill, aggressively pushed by Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, seeks to bypass the unanimous decision of military court judges (always such sticklers for process, bless them) by allowing a majority
verdict to impose the death sentence. One might wonder why, after decades of military occupation and control over Palestinian lives, the existing 'justice' system isn't brutal enough. The U.S. House of Representatives, for its part, recently approved HR 815, providing over $14 billion in military aid to Israel, with nary a whisper of concern for how such funds enable legislative moves like this,
championed by politicians who received over $4.5 million in pro-Israel PAC money in 2022 alone, according to OpenSecrets.