Church leaders deplore Israel’s ‘discriminatory’ new death penalty law

‘This latest outrage is another example of the systematic discrimination meted out to Palestinians by the Israeli state,’ Christian Aid warned.

Bishop James Curry, lead for the Holy Land for the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, has condemned Israel’s new death penalty law for Palestinians.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law on 30 March to make the death penalty by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who have been found guilty of deadly attacks on Israelis which are deemed to be “acts of terrorism”.

Bishop Curry echoed foreign secretary Yvette Cooper’s rejection of the bill, which, together with the foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, France, Italy, and New Zealand, warned that it risked “undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”.

Bishop Curry said, “The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the death penalty is ‘inadmissible’. It should never be used, regardless of the crime committed.

“A person’s dignity is not lost, even after they have committed serious crimes. Executing a prisoner is a violation of the ‘inviolability and dignity of the person’. Modern states now have effective ways to protect their citizens without resorting to killing.”

Bishop Curry also decried the “discriminatory” nature of the bill, which is worded to effectively apply only to Palestinians, in contrast with the apparent high levels of impunity of Israeli settlers killing Palestinians in the West Bank.

The death penalty could only be carried out if the intention of the attack could be said to have been to “negate the existence of the state of Israel”, and the European foreign ministers warned that the law is “de facto discriminatory” because it would in practice only be used against Palestinians.

The law has also been strongly condemned by human rights and humanitarian groups. William Bell, head of Middle East advocacy at Christian Aid, said: “The legislation establishes a system of discriminatory capital punishment which we believe will be applied exclusively to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military jurisdiction, while Israeli settlers are tried in civilian courts, which can only impose the death penalty in extreme cases. This latest outrage is another example of the systematic discrimination meted out to Palestinians by the Israeli state.”

At a press conference on 31 March, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa warned that the law would worsen distrust and hostility between Israelis and Palestinians and reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances.

Cardinal Pizzaballa said he had received the news “with great pain” and stressed the importance of working “with all parts of civil society to ensure that attention is kept alive and the situation does not deteriorate further”.

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