After Dozens Die in Israeli Prisons, Death Penalty Law Rattles Palestinians | Israel-Palestine conflict

Ramallah, West Bank – Dozens of Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons over the past two and a half years, some during torture and others as a result of medical neglect by prison authorities, rights groups say.

Now Israel is making plans to execute potentially hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held on charges of fatal attacks against Israelis, according to an Israeli media report, under what legal experts have called racist legislation that has outraged the families of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported last week that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has begun logistical preparations to implement a draft law, which outlines plans for a dedicated facility to carry out any executions and to prepare and train staff to carry out the punishment.

The draft law calling for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis passed the first reading in the Israeli parliament in November, amid controversy over what a Palestinian legal expert described as “apartheid legislation”.

An amended version of the bill is under discussion in a parliamentary committee before two more readings before it is passed into law, but no date has been set for a new vote.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that according to the plan, executions would be implemented within 90 days of the court verdict and that they would be carried out by hanging.

It cited sources as saying that death sentences will be carried out against elite members of Hamas, accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack.

Prisoners convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis in the occupied West Bank will later be executed, it said.

Palestinian fears

For the family of Arafat Mahmoud Abu Shaeira, who is serving a 28-year sentence after an armed clash with Israeli soldiers in 2006 in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the report is extremely worrying.

“I no longer sleep for fear of Arafat,” his mother, Rasmiyah, told Al Jazeera at her home in al-Azzeh refugee camp, also known as Beit Jibrin, in Bethlehem, referring to her 44-year-old son.

Looking at a photo of Arafat, who is being held in an Israeli prison in the Negev desert, she said as if “starvation, abuse and murder” in prison were not enough, “we now hear news that Israel has begun to implement the prisoners’ execution law.”

The Palestinian Information Center said Arafat was in chronic pain from bullet shrapnel still in his shoulder, back and hand after the collision. Two of his comrades died in this incident.

His family, who have not been able to visit him since Israel imposed a ban on family visits more than two years ago, say that apart from his injuries, they are concerned by reports from lawyers and rights activists of severe abuse by prison guards and negligence by prison authorities.

In a report Published in November last year, Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) said at least 94 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody had been documented since October 2023.

Israeli military prisons accounted for at least 52 of the deaths, it said, while the remaining 42 were documented in facilities run by the IPS.

Israel holds thousands of Palestinians in its prisons for attacks or simply for involvement in the resistance to the occupation, according to rights activists. Thousands more have been detained since the genocidal war against Gaza began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people.

Israel has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 20,000 children.

Hundreds of those inmates could be subject to the death penalty if the law is enacted. A revised draft legislation is currently being debated in the national security committee in parliament before being sent for a second and third reading.

A vote has yet to be scheduled.

Palestinian Prisoner’s Society: Prisoners living in ‘hell’

The head of a Palestinian society that campaigns for the prisoners said Palestinian prisoners are already living “in hell”, and the law calling for the execution of prisoners represents a dangerous development.

“Escalation against prisoners has continued without pause for the past two years, culminating in Israeli media announcing the imminent implementation of the execution law,” Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera.

“Talk about additional measures and preparations to hang prisoners from Gaza and the West Bank comes within a broader escalation that coincides with the ongoing war against the Palestinian people, including within the prison walls,” al-Zaghari said.

Violations of international law

He said all measures against prisoners imposed by Israel’s far-right government after it took office three years ago were a violation of international law.

Ramzi Odeh, professor of international law and head of the International Academic Campaign Against Occupation and Apartheid, said the proposed law is “apartheid legislation” because it distinguishes between Palestinians and non-Palestinians.

“An Israeli settler or soldier who kills a Palestinian is not subject to this law,” Al Jazeera said. “They are tried under normal procedures, and the execution law is not applied to them. This is clear discrimination in punishment against Palestinians.”

Odeh said Israel has classified Palestinian detainees under what it calls the category of “unlawful combatants” – a designation that rights groups consider controversial because it removes them from prisoner-of-war protection under international law, while also not treating them as civilian detainees subject to ordinary judicial safeguards.

“As a result, in many cases they are not presented with clear charges, nor are they tried within specified time frames, but are held in detention for long and open-ended periods,” he said.

“The most dangerous aspect of this law is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting prisoners, as well as limiting lawyer visits to the late stages of proceedings,” Odeh added.

He said the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly guarantees Red Cross visits, access to medical care, adequate food and family visits.

“Israel exploited the events of October 7, 2023 to disregard these obligations, while the world remains silent,” he added.

Appeals for international support

Al-Zaghari appealed to Arab and Muslim mediators, including the emir of Qatar, and the Egyptian and Turkish presidents, to intervene and ensure protection for prisoners’ lives and rights.

Al-Zaghari said Palestinian rights organizations were preparing to launch an international campaign to confront what he described as “massacres” inside prisons. He said meetings had been held with foreign consuls and ambassadors, as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but gave no further details.

“If there is no urgent and effective action to stop the prisoners’ execution law and the assaults inside prisons, the situation will further deteriorate and reach dangerous levels,” he warned.