Israeli parliament passes new death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners | ABC NEWS

[0:00]Israeli politicians just passed a new death penalty law that'll pretty much only apply to Palestinians. And then they did this. [Hebrew] "Minister, why all the celebrating?" "The death penalty for terrorists passed today. This is history, with God's help, soon we will execute them, one by one, all those who murdered, massacred, and burned. Cheers! To the people of Israel." This is a deeply disturbing, discriminatory law that in essence, you know, entrenches the apartheid that we've seen in the occupied territories, you know, rather than moving toward some kind of fair justice system there. The legislation makes the death penalty the default punishment for people found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed acts of terrorism against the state of Israel by an Israeli military court. Because of the way the law is written, it means it's almost exclusively going to apply to Palestinians from the West Bank, and it's highly unlikely that an Israeli that commits a murder will ever face this punishment. The method of execution will be hanging, carried out within 90 days of sentencing, and the law has been pushed by Israel's far-right politicians, who in recent weeks have been seen wearing nooses as lapel pins. They cheered after the law passed. [Cheering] [Cheering] The law also heavily restricts the right to appeal, and it's been slammed by rights activists as discriminatory, racist, and inhumane. Israel technically already has the death penalty, but it was abolished as a punishment for murder in the 1950s until now. Now the law won't apply to crimes that have already happened, and opponents have launched an appeal in Israel's Supreme Court, hoping it'll be struck down as unconstitutional.