RAMALLAH, (PIC)
Palestinian prisoner institutions directed an urgent appeal to the “free people of the world” to take immediate action to stop the draft law of executing Palestinian prisoners, warning of its imminent approval in the Israeli Knesset.
The institutions said, in a statement on Wednesday, that “the Israeli settler colonial regime is moving forward in its efforts to approve a law that stipulates the execution of Palestinian prisoners, taking advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the ongoing (American-Israeli/Iranian) war,” considering that this comes within the context of “targeting the Palestinian existence through the crime of genocide and systematic erasure.”
They added that the committee of the so-called “national security” in the Knesset approved, shortly before midnight Tuesday, the draft law in the final reading, in preparation for presenting it to the general assembly for ratification during the next week.
In light of this development, the institutions renewed their call to the international community to urgently and effectively intervene to stop the project before its approval, noting that during the past period they sent messages to international human rights bodies, foremost among them the United Nations, in addition to communicating with representatives of countries and diplomatic missions, to explain the “dangerous developments”.
They explained that these developments include the draft law, in addition to the “reality of ongoing genocide inside prisons,” which they said have been transformed into “integrated systems of systematic torture with the aim of killing more prisoners.”
The institutions stressed that the state of international complicity, systematic incapacity, and abandonment of legal and moral responsibilities during the Israeli war on Gaza, contributed to granting Israel additional cover to escalate its policies, including targeting prisoners, considering that the execution project represents “the peak of this path”.
They said that the Israeli occupation authorities have practiced, over decades, “slow execution policies” against hundreds of Palestinian prisoners inside prisons, noting that these policies have escalated unprecedentedly since the beginning of the war on Gaza, making the current phase “the bloodiest” in the history of the prisoner movement.
They added that the number of martyred prisoners has exceeded 100 since the beginning of this phase, the identities of 88 of them have been announced, while dozens remain under enforced disappearance.
They indicated that the draft law of executing prisoners is not new, but rather falls within a legal system whose roots go back to the British Mandate era. However, its implementation has historically remained restricted and linked to political considerations.
They pointed out that calls to approve it have escalated with the rise of the current Israeli government, led by the extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and supported by right wing parties, in addition to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to become one of the central slogans of the government.
The institutions renewed their demands to activate the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible for torture crimes and war crimes, and to suspend all forms of diplomatic, military, and economic cooperation with Israel until it complies with international law.
They also called for dealing with the Knesset and Israeli courts as “racist institutions”, and to work on isolating them internationally, including rejecting their membership in international parliaments and unions.
The institutions demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners, ending the policy of administrative detention, dismantling the system of military courts, opening independent investigations into cases of torture and death inside prisons, cooperating with the International Criminal Court, implementing arrest warrants, in addition to enabling the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisoners without restrictions.