Israel institutionalizes apartheid-era legal framework: Death penalty as systemic tool of Palestinian subjugation

Palestinian legal traditions, such as *sulha* (tribal reconciliation) and customary law, are systematically criminalized by Israeli courts, which prioritize state authority over communal justice. The death penalty law mirrors settler-colonial erasure of Indigenous legal systems, as seen in Canada’s residential schools or Australia’s Stolen Generations, where state violence replaced Indigenous governance. Palestinian lawyers and prisoners’ rights groups (e.g., Addameer) document how military courts deny fair trials, a pattern common in settler-colonial legal frameworks worldwide.

The law echoes apartheid South Africa’s 1950 Suppression of Communism Act, which used capital punishment to suppress Black resistance, and the U.S. post-Civil War Black Codes that criminalized Black life. Israel’s 1980 death penalty law (never enforced until now) was modeled after British colonial emergency regulations used to crush Palestinian uprisings. Historical precedents show how settler states deploy juridical violence to maintain demographic control, from Algeria’s *code de l’indigénat* to Canada’s *Potlatch Ban*.

In India, colonial-era laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) enable extrajudicial killings in Kashmir, mirroring Israel’s military courts—both framed as 'counterinsurgency' to justify state terror. Māori activists in Aotearoa link their fight against state executions to Palestine’s, noting how juridical violence targets Indigenous populations to suppress self-determination. In Colombia, paramilitary groups and state forces use 'legal' executions to terrorize Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities, illustrating a global pattern of racialized juridical violence.

Studies by human rights organizations (Amnesty, HRW) show military courts in the West Bank have a 99.7% conviction rate for Palestinians, with confessions often extracted under torture—a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. Research by B’Tselem and Yesh Din demonstrates that Israeli settlers in the West Bank face near-zero conviction rates for violence against Palestinians, evidencing a two-tier legal system. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the OPT has condemned Israel’s use of the death penalty as a war crime under international law.

Palestinian artists like Emily Jacir and Larissa Sansour use film and installation to depict the juridical erasure of Palestinian life, framing the death penalty as a metaphor for the 'slow violence' of occupation. Palestinian poets such as Mahmoud Darwish wrote extensively on the 'law of the occupier' as a tool of spiritual and physical annihilation. In Jewish tradition, the Talmud prohibits executions without 'beyond reasonable doubt' evidence—contradicting Israel’s use of coerced confessions, highlighting a spiritual crisis within Zionist legalism.

If enforced, this law will escalate Palestinian resistance to armed struggle, as nonviolent tactics (e.g., BDS, protests) are already criminalized under Israel’s 'anti-terrorism' laws. The law risks triggering ICC investigations for apartheid and war crimes, potentially isolating Israel diplomatically as seen with South Africa’s post-apartheid transition. Scenario modeling suggests increased radicalization among Palestinian youth, mirroring the 1987 First Intifada’s response to state violence. Long-term, it may accelerate global solidarity movements akin to the anti-apartheid struggle.

Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups like Addameer and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society document systemic abuses in Israeli prisons, where 95% of Palestinians report torture during interrogations. Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard notes that military courts are 'kangaroo courts' designed to produce convictions, not justice. Palestinian citizens of Israel face legal discrimination under the 2018 Nation-State Law, which enshrines Jewish supremacy—demonstrating how juridical violence targets all Palestinians, not just those in the West Bank/Gaza.