ISTANBUL

Deputy leader of the parliamentary group of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, Mathilde Panot, on Tuesday urged the European Union to take action against Israel following the approval of a controversial death penalty law for Palestinians.

“Yesterday, a law was definitively passed that establishes a racist death penalty against Palestinians,” Panot said during a news briefing at the National Assembly.

She noted that an Israeli rights group has filed a case with the Supreme Court challenging the law, which would impose mandatory executions without appeal.

“This would mean immediate hanging for at least 300 Palestinian prisoners, while none of Israel’s citizens have been prosecuted for the killing of Palestinian civilians since 2020,” Panot said.

She added that since 2022, at least 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or the Israeli army in the West Bank, and that Israel has not carried out a death sentence since the execution of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

Panot called on France to sanction Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what she described as “extremely serious violations of international law” and urged citizens to sign a European Citizens’ Initiative collecting signatures to pressure the European Commission to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement.

The Knesset passed the law on Monday evening by 62-48 votes. Netanyahu voted in support of the law.

The law allows execution by hanging, carried out by prison guards appointed by the Israeli Prison Service, with the identities of the executors kept secret and granting them legal immunity.

It allows courts to issue death sentences without a request from prosecutors and does not require a unanimous decision, permitting rulings by a simple majority.

The law also applies to military courts handling cases involving Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and grants the defense minister the right to present an opinion before the court.