Palestinian shops across the West Bank and East Jerusalem were closed yesterday in protest against Israel’s new death penalty law that applies only to Palestinians.

Hundreds also gathered in Ramallah to march against the legislation backed by Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Al Jazeera reported that one protester held a sign reading “stop the law to execute prisoners, before it’s too late”.

Members of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party wore noose pins on their lapels in support of sentencing Palestinians to death at the Knesset vote on Monday.

The new law will make a death sentence the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in military courts, by classifying deadly attacks as terrorism against the Israeli state. The same penalty is not imposed on Jewish Israelis.

Palestinians in the West Bank are de facto tried in military courts, which have a conviction rate of over 99% according to Amnesty International.

There are currently around 10,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, around 3,500 of whom are being held without charge or trial. Physical, sexual and psychological torture of Palestinian detainees is rife.

A protestor in Ramallah told AFP: “There isn’t a single person standing here who doesn’t have a brother, a husband, a son, or even a neighbour in prison. There is no Palestinian family without a prisoner.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence against Palestinians in the area has exploded since October 2023.

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.

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