MAKKAH: The Muslim World League has condemned a law approved this week by the Israeli parliament that authorizes the use of the death penalty in a manner the league said discriminates against Palestinians.
The new law will make execution the default punishment for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted on terror charges of carrying out deadly attacks against Israelis.
Palestinians in the West Bank are tried in military courts. Israeli citizens, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, are tried in civilian courts, but the language used in the bill effectively means that only Palestinians will face the death penalty in civilian courts.
Mohammed Al-Issa, secretary-general of the MWL and chairperson of the Organization of Muslim Scholars, denounced the legislation as representative of the continuing disregard for the lives, dignity and rights of the Palestinian people through repression and racial discrimination, and of inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees.
He affirmed the league’s support for similar condemnations by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, and the UAE.
