London: Israel could lose its observer status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe over a new death penalty law, the assembly president has warned.
The law could see Palestinians face execution for offenses including murder and terrorism if convicted in military courts in occupied Palestine or civilian courts in Israel.
Petra Bayr, the assembly president, said it is “really a requirement” for observer states to not have the death penalty, and Israel’s status “might be suspended until there is a decision (against) or until it is clear that the law will not go into force.”
Bayr, an Austrian Social Democrat, added: “There are red lines … Even a non-discriminatory death penalty is a no-go.”
Jewish Israelis are effectively safe from the death penalty, as the crimes required for it to apply rest on the idea that they are committed with the “intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel.”
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has held observer status at the assembly, based in Strasbourg, since 1957.
That status was thrown into doubt after a cross-party group of parliamentarians signed a motion demanding that Israel “comply with international humanitarian law” in Gaza last June. No country has ever lost its observer status at the assembly.
Motions can take up to two years to be passed and approved, but Bayr said the Gaza motion could be “fast-tracked” and have a statement on the new Israeli death penalty law added to it.
The assembly’s 306 members will vote on April 22 on whether to approve a report by Dutch politician Gala Veldhoen that “strongly urges Israel to maintain its longstanding abolition of the death penalty for ordinary crimes (and) refrain from expanding the list of crimes punishable by death in a discriminatory manner.”
Meirav Ben-Ari, an Israeli opposition politician who heads the Knesset’s delegation to the assembly, said in a statement: “Petitions against this populist law have already been filed with the supreme court, and I am confident the judiciary will strike down many of its provisions, if not the law entirely.”
She said the new law is “entirely contrary to my worldview and that of many Israelis,” adding: “It is my sincere hope that the assembly will refrain from taking extreme measures against the Knesset delegation so that together we may continue to advance our shared objectives.”
Despite largely abolishing the death penalty in 1954, occasional executions have taken place in Israel subsequently, the last being that of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
