UN committee says Israel’s death penalty law perpetuates ‘racial discrimination’ against Palestinians

Israel’s newly adopted death penalty law perpetuates racial discrimination against Palestinians and amounts to a grave erosion of human rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said Friday, Anadolu reports. CERD expressed alarm about the law mandates, and urged Israel to immediately repeal it. “Those courts have exclusive jurisdiction over Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while Israeli citizens and residents are explicitly excluded from its application,” it said in a statement. Saying that the law is de facto applicable to Palestinians only, it stressed that it prohibits mitigation, commutation or pardon of the death penalty and sets a 90-day deadline for executions once a final judgment is rendered. The state party should “ensure that all […]