Systemic Militarism and Colonial Violence: Jewish Abolitionists Challenge Israel’s Death Penalty Expansion

Palestinian legal traditions, rooted in Islamic *qisas* (restorative justice) and pre-colonial communal dispute resolution, historically rejected capital punishment as incompatible with communal harmony. The British Mandate’s 1936 penal code, later adopted by Israel, imposed death sentences primarily against Arab Palestinians for political acts, framing resistance as criminality. Mizrahi Jews, particularly from Arab countries, faced state violence under laws like the 1950 ‘Absentee Property Law,’ which dispossessed Palestinians and criminalized dissent across ethnic lines.

The death penalty in Israel/Palestine traces back to British colonial laws (e.g., the 1936 Emergency Regulations) used to suppress Palestinian rebellion, later repurposed by Israel to target political opponents. Apartheid South Africa’s 1950 ‘Suppression of Communism Act’ and Israel’s 1980 ‘Unlawful Organizations Law’ both weaponized execution as a tool of racialized control. The Nuremberg Trials’ rejection of ‘just following orders’ is invoked by Jewish abolitionists, yet Israel’s legal system exempts soldiers from accountability for state-sanctioned killings.

In the U.S., the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to Black Americans, with studies showing racial bias in sentencing (e.g., 43% of executions since 1976 involved Black defendants). Indigenous communities in Canada and Australia have documented state executions as part of genocidal policies, such as Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’ and Canada’s residential schools. In India, the death penalty for ‘terrorism’ has targeted Muslim minorities, mirroring Israel’s use of ‘security’ laws to justify executions.

Research from the *Journal of Criminal Justice* (2020) shows that death penalty laws do not deter crime, with Israel’s own data indicating no correlation between executions and crime rates. A 2023 *Lancet* study found that countries with abolitionist policies have lower rates of state violence overall. The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions has repeatedly condemned Israel’s use of capital punishment as a violation of international law, citing its discriminatory application.

Jewish abolitionists like Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb draw on *Tikkun Olam* (repairing the world) to argue that execution laws violate the sanctity of life (*pikuach nefesh*). Palestinian poets such as Mahmoud Darwish framed state violence as a ‘poetic murder,’ where language itself becomes a tool of erasure. In South Africa, the *Truth and Reconciliation Commission*’s emphasis on restorative justice over retributive punishment reflects Indigenous African spiritual traditions of communal healing.

If Israel’s death penalty law is implemented, it risks normalizing state executions as a routine tool of governance, particularly against Palestinians, with potential escalation to mass executions during crises. A regional abolitionist movement could emerge, linking Palestinian, Mizrahi, and Israeli Jewish activists to challenge the legal infrastructure of apartheid. International divestment from Israel’s military-industrial complex (e.g., Elbit Systems) could pressure the state to repeal the law, as seen with South Africa’s 1980s sanctions.

Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups like Addameer and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights have documented 1,000+ death sentences since 1967, primarily against political dissidents, yet their reports are sidelined in Western media. Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries, such as the *Black Panthers* movement, have faced state violence under laws like the 1950 ‘Absentee Property Law,’ yet their histories are erased in mainstream narratives. Ethiopian-Israeli activists have protested the death penalty’s disproportionate impact on Black communities, linking it to broader anti-Black racism in Israel.