Protests erupt in West Bank as Israel approves death penalty for
Palestinians convicted of murder
[April 01, 2026]
By JULIA FRANKEL
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets across the
embattled Palestinian territories on Tuesday, a day after Israel's
parliament passed a measure establishing the death penalty by hanging
for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.
Palestinians young and old held sit-ins and marches in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, the territory where the new law is most
sweeping. The Fatah political party has called a general strike in the
northern part of the West Bank for Wednesday.
The legislation orders West Bank military courts — which try only
Palestinians — to make the death penalty the default sentence for those
convicted, except in special circumstances.
“Time is running out and silence is deadly,” read the signs carried by
protesters in the central West Bank city of Nablus, which showed an
animation of a prisoner wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf next to a
noose. “Stop the law to execute prisoners, before it’s too late.”
The bill passed its final vote in the Israeli parliament late Monday to
cheers and applause. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli firebrand minister of
national security who spearheaded the push for the legislation,
described the law as long overdue and a sign of strength and national
pride.
The law is set to take effect in 30 days but its implementation could be
delayed by pending court proceedings at Israel’s highest tribunal.

The measure is not retroactive and won’t apply to current prisoners.
Still, it signaled an extreme hardening of Israeli penal policy that
elicited fear from the protesters for all Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli jails — emblems of national resistance.
“You are the symbol of struggle, You are the symbol of steadfastness,”
the protesters in Nablus chanted, some holding up signs with the faces
of friends and family currently in Israeli prisons.
Palestinian officials released statements saying the death penalty
measure violated international law and asking other countries to
intervene. Amnesty International has said that the use of the death
penalty under the new measure could violate the right to life and the
prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment, as enshrined in international law.
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Palestinians demonstrate against the decision by Israel's parliament
to approve the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering
Israelis in Nablus, West Bank, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi
Mohammed)

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called for sanctions on Israel's
parliament and its suspension from international bodies.
“The law represents a critical turning point in the formalization of
extrajudicial killings under a legal guise,” the statement said,
adding that the ministry "stresses that this law, in its essence,
constitutes an institutionalized policy of field executions based on
discriminatory and racist standards.”
The bill’s passage was the culmination of a yearslong push by
Israel’s far right to escalate punishment against Palestinians
convicted of attacking Israelis. After the vote, Ben Gvir celebrated
by popping champagne. A coalition of Israeli rights groups and
opposition lawmakers announced they were launching a petition to
Israel’s Supreme Court to declare the law null and void.
In Gaza, dozens joined a demonstration in front of the headquarters
of the Red Cross where women in hijabs, or headscarves, held up
large framed photographs of well-known Palestinian prisoners such as
Marwan Barghouti.
The law extends also to Israeli courts, giving them the option of
imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted of
nationalistic murder — language that legal experts say effectively
confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens
of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.
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