Arab League calls for international probe into Israeli death penalty law for Palestinian prisoners

ISTANBUL

The Arab League called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday to open an urgent criminal investigation into Israel’s approval of a law allowing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners.

The call came in a resolution issued at the conclusion of an emergency meeting held by the Cairo-based league on the legislation, which was approved earlier this week by the Israeli Knesset.

According to the resolution, the league urged the ICC to prosecute Israeli officials responsible for adopting the law, considering it “a war crime” and part of a system of “oppression and apartheid” against the Palestinian people.

The organization also called on international and human rights organizations to pursue Israeli officials under universal jurisdiction laws in national courts.

It urged the UN Human Rights Council’s ongoing international fact-finding committee to investigate “torture, starvation and inhumane conditions” imposed by Israeli authorities on Palestinian detainees, and to seek access to Israeli prisons.

The league further called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to intensify its efforts to ensure immediate and unrestricted access to all detention centers and prisons.

It also stressed the need to activate a legal monitoring unit established by the joint Arab-Islamic summit to document implementation of the law and prepare cases for international courts, while urging Palestinian and international rights groups to submit periodic documented reports on prisoners’ conditions.

The league called on the Arab Parliament, the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, and national Arab parliaments to work toward freezing the membership of the Israeli Knesset in the Inter-Parliamentary Union and other parliamentary bodies, and to impose punitive measures against its members.

The Knesset approved the controversial law on Monday. The legislation allows courts to impose the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of intentionally killing Israelis without requiring a prosecutor’s request and without unanimous judicial agreement. It also applies to military courts handling cases involving Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

*Writing by Rania Abushamla in Istanbul