The Draft Law on the Execution of Palestinian Prisoners: Legalizing Killing Under the Guise of Law (Research Paper)

The Draft Law on the Execution of Palestinian Prisoners: Legalizing Killing Under the Guise of Law (Research Paper)

The paper authored by lawyer and legal researcher Wasim Al-Shanti examines the political and legislative background of the draft law, clarifying that it does not constitute an isolated criminal measure, but rather forms part of an escalating pattern of racially motivated punitive legislation aimed at granting legal legitimacy to policies of killing and serious violations against Palestinian prisoners.

The study concludes that the draft law fundamentally contradicts the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Conventions, and violates the right to life as well as the core guarantees of a fair trial enshrined in international human rights law. It further emphasizes that lowering the threshold for issuing death sentences, prohibiting sentence mitigation or substitution, and institutionalizing national-based discrimination in its application are clear indicators of the law’s transformation into a repressive instrument detached from any genuine concept of justice.

In its conclusion, the Hague Initiative for Law and Justice calls on international and human righ

ts institutions to treat the draft law on the execution of prisoners as unlawful and to include it within international accountability mechanisms, warning of the grave danger posed by international silence in the face of legalizing killing under the guise of law.

The Hague Initiative for Law and Justice

5 January 2026

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The Draft Law on the Execution of Palestinian Prisoners: Legalizing Killing Under the Guise of Law