(Adnkronos) – Italy has slammed a bill legalising capital punishment for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks, which the Israeli parliaement (Knesset) is expected to approve in a vote on Monday.
“Our government, together with those of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, has issued a joint statement calling on the Israeli government to withdraw the bill introducing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism,” Tajani wrote on X.
“The commitments made, particularly through the resolutions adopted at the United Nations for a moratorium on the death penalty cannot be disregarded,” Tajani went on.
“For us, life is an absolute value; to claim the right to take it away as a form of punishment is an inhumane measure that undermines human dignity,” he wrote.
The bill devised by Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has drawn international criticism towards Israel, which is already under scrutinty over mounting settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Tajani and his German, French and British counterparts said the bill had a “de facto discriminatory” character towards Palestinians.
“The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles,” the ministers wrote in a joint statement on Sunday.
The measure includes provisions requiring an execution by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with some allowance for a delay but no right to clemency and the option of imposing a life sentence instead of capital punishment.
