(Adnkronos) – Italy on Wednesday urged Israel’s Knesset to revoke a law it passed in March which made hanging the standard punishment for Palestinians convicted in military courts of lethal terrorist attacks – legislation that has drawn international criticism and prompted the country’s leading rights group to lodge an appeal with Israel’s Supreme Court.
“I reemphaised Italy’s position this morning in Parliament,” foreign minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X, referring to his appearance at a joint hearing of the upper and lower houses of parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committees.
“The Knesset must repeal the death penalty law against Palestinians,” Tajani underlined.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the legislation as a breach of international law and said it would not intimidate Palestinians or deter them from their goal of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians to launch attacks in revenge for the law, which requires an execution to be carried out within 90 days of sentencing with no right to clemency.
The law would only apply to Israelis convicted of murder whose attacks aimed at ‘ending Israel’s existence’, meaning Jewish Israelis who commit similar crimes cannot be executed, critics say.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954.
