DAP CONDEMNS NEW LAW BY ROGUE ISRAELI REGIME TO USE DEATH PENALTY ON PALESTINIANS

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The Democratic Action Party (DAP) condemns the passing of a new law to use the death penalty on Palestinians in the Knesset by the rogue Israeli Zionist regime.

DAP Secretary for International Affairs Kasthuri Patto said in a statement on Wednesday that such a law is barbaric, primitive, savage, and a violation of human rights, and must be condemned by all.

“Israel cannot and must not be allowed to continue its reign of terror in the world with impunity. To use the death penalty against Palestinians is akin to extrajudicial killings and can be constituted as a crime against humanity.

“It is time to hold Israel accountable and to demand for justice and answers for crimes against humanity, including those who protect the system that shields war criminals,” she said. 

Kasthuri said the DAP condemns this inhuman act to segregate and persecute Palestinians using the death penalty on them and to create a climate of fear, like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in a nation decimated by Zionists.

“Israel, through its apartheid and occupation, strengthened through resolute Zionism, has pushed its boundaries from being a nationalist movement to now legalising the killing of Palestinians, weaponising the death penalty,” she said. 

Kasthuri added that the DAP stands together with progressive sister political parties in condemning the use of the death penalty in Israel and everywhere else in the world and especially as a political tool to intimidate human rights defenders.

“Its is a gross infringement of human rights, and we (DAP) call on world leaders who promote universal values of social justice, freedom, justice, equality and peace to sanction Israel for organised and state-sponsored terrorism,” she said. 

On Tuesday, the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, passed a new law allowing the Government to use the death penalty on Palestinians, and mainly West Bank residents who are in prison and convicted of deadly terrorist attacks.

The Israeli Prison Service have begun preparing designated facilities for execution, even though the bill was just passed yesterday and there is no mention of an exemption for children.

While judges can opt for life imprisonment under vaguely defined “special circumstances,” the death penalty through hanging would otherwise be mandatory and carried out within 90 days of sentencing, while eliminating any right of appeal.

Israelis are tried in civilian courts and Palestinians in military courts.

According to Kasthuri, the announcement has sent ripples all over the world, seeing that Israel has been on a quest for the annihilation and the genocide of Palestinians.

“In this time and age, in a multipolar world, while the lines of war are clearly drawn and the lines for peace appear blurred, the erosion of human rights and the systems that enable it seems to be spreading far and wide,” she said.

Kasthuri urged that member states of the United Nations on human rights instruments must condemn Israel vehemently on its gross human rights abuses and weaponising the death penalty.

She stated that Israel is a state party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) amongst others.

“In spite of ratifying these human rights conventions, Israel remains at the core of incessant violations and transgressions on human rights.

“What remains is for targeted sanctions to be implemented against Israel alongside access to information and visits through fact-finding missions in Israel and for other state parties to lodge a formal complaint,” she said. 

Citing reports by B’Tselem or the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Kasthuri said that in December 2025, the Israeli Prison Service held 9,128 Palestinians in detention and in prison on “security” grounds, including 1,477 from the Gaza Strip.

“351 Palestinian children are also detained with trumped-up charges, and 168 are held with no charge nor trial to stifle and repress. Israeli prisons are notorious for torture, and children have been found with torture marks on them,” she said.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel announced that it would petition the court, arguing that the Knesset does not have the authority to pass legislation that applies to the Palestinian population of the West Bank since Israel does not formally hold sovereignty there, and because under the relevant international laws, which Israel largely recognises, legislative authority lies with the military commander.

-- BERNAMA

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