Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven am. Israel's
Speaker 1: passed a new law to execute Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks.
Speaker 1: It passed through the country's parliament despite the opposition of
Speaker 1: both Israeli and international human rights groups, as well as
Speaker 1: the UK, Germany, France and Italy. Israel's National Doctors' Union
Speaker 1: has refused to carry out lethal injections, so those convicted
Speaker 1: will face death by hanging. The government argues the law
Speaker 1: will deter future Palestinian attacks, and some right wing Israeli
Speaker 1: politicians wore new shaped pins in parliament Today. Israeli journalist
Speaker 1: Amira has from the daily newspaper Haaretz on capital punishment,
Speaker 1: settler violence, and expanding settlements in Palestine. It's Tuesday, April fourteen.
Speaker 2: This week, Palestinians protested a new Israeli law that expands
Speaker 2: the death penalty for killings classified as acts of terrorism.
Speaker 2: Human rights groups say the law is expected to apply
Speaker 2: exclusively to Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank.
Speaker 1: Amira, you've lived in the West Bank for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1: Could you stop by explaining to us what this new
Speaker 1: death penalty law is and why are some experts saying
Speaker 1: it'll be used against Palestinians but not Israelis who are
Speaker 1: convicted of similar crimes.
Speaker 3: Look, you don't need experts to know that this law
Speaker 3: only applies to Palestinians. First of all, Israeli Jews who
Speaker 3: live in the West Bank are under Israeli civil law,
Speaker 3: not military law, and if they commit a felony or
Speaker 3: a crime, they are being prosecuted in Israeli civil courts,
Speaker 3: not military courts. So this is one thing. The second
Speaker 3: thing is that in Israel proper, the Israeli civil court
Speaker 3: is mandated two sentenced to death anybody who committed the
Speaker 3: crime of murder and terror in the intent to deny
Speaker 3: the existence of Israel, of the state of Israel. And
Speaker 3: this is kind of a code, a euphemism for saying
Speaker 3: that this is only a Palestinian can intense ufter thing
Speaker 3: and not a Jew. And the government of this state
Speaker 3: are boasting about the law that they have passed or
Speaker 3: have accepted, this law of death penalty.
Speaker 1: So how would these executions be carried out by hanging?
Speaker 4: Those convicted have to be hanged within ninety days without
Speaker 4: the possibility of an appeal.
Speaker 3: The guards of the Israeli prison service are supposed to
Speaker 3: hang them. They will be there and they will be hooded,
Speaker 3: they will be their faces will be covered. They will
Speaker 3: not be seen by the doctors who will be present
Speaker 3: or the other official that will be present. They will
Speaker 3: not be known or seen.
Speaker 4: But if you look at the wording of the text,
Speaker 4: it talks about those convicted of killing Israelis with the
Speaker 4: quote intent to negate the existence of the state of Israel,
Speaker 4: meaning it won't apply to extremist Israelis who kill Palestinians
Speaker 4: like we've been seeing recently in the West Bank for example.
Speaker 1: Now, this law was passed through the Israeli kannessed by
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling coalition. How
Speaker 1: are they justifying the law and how much support for
Speaker 1: it is there in wide or Israeli society.
Speaker 3: The main argument that they give is that this law
Speaker 3: is supposed to deter Palestinians from committing theorist the texts.
Speaker 5: As they are called in Israel.
Speaker 3: In a recorded message that Israeli citizens have received, including myself,
Speaker 3: over the phone, we heard the voice, the very cheerful
Speaker 3: voice of the Minister of National Security it Am Bevis
Speaker 3: where he said he was proud about the passing of
Speaker 3: this law that his party were promoting for several years.
Speaker 6: Already they've already started ordering red uniforms, that opening a
Speaker 6: death throw wing setting up a facility, because you need
Speaker 6: to have a facility.
Speaker 3: He said that this law will make Israel more secure,
Speaker 3: moral and more just. These are his words, but this
Speaker 3: is complete nonsense, because many of the Palestinians who do
Speaker 3: resort to very extreme acts of killing are known to
Speaker 3: be ready to die.
Speaker 5: Death does not deter them.
Speaker 3: Even those who throw stones know that now soldiers are
Speaker 3: very likely to shoot at them and to kill them.
Speaker 7: Settlers are being emboldened, they are taking matters into their
Speaker 7: own hands, and that they are being protected effectively by
Speaker 7: the military and by the police.
Speaker 3: Or even if they don't throw anything and are just
Speaker 3: demonstrating the Israeli rules of engagement now are so lenient
Speaker 3: that a soldier or a policeman can shoot it a
Speaker 3: car full of civilians and then say I felt threatened
Speaker 3: and that it will.
Speaker 7: Be excused grief and fury in the occupied West Bank,
Speaker 7: as mourners took to the streets of Tamen on Sunday
Speaker 7: to bury a family of four shot dead by Israeli
Speaker 7: forces while driving through their own village.
Speaker 3: Now, as for the number of people who support it,
Speaker 3: I haven't seen polls that are connected to the law
Speaker 3: that has just been passed. But in November twenty five,
Speaker 3: eighty percent of the people asked, and I believe that
Speaker 3: these are Jews who were asked, supported the death penalty
Speaker 3: to the Nuba members. This is the unit that perpetuated
Speaker 3: the onslot on October seventh, Hamas unit, but the law
Speaker 3: that was past does not apply to them because it
Speaker 3: is not retroactive. So what I see in this law
Speaker 3: is mostly a manifestation of revenge and intimidation and terrorizing
Speaker 3: the Palestinians, not really the terms of terror and the mirror.
Speaker 1: I know that this issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
Speaker 1: jails is also at the core of Palestinian national identity.
Speaker 1: One in five Palestinians has been inside and Israeli jailed
Speaker 1: one time or another. So how is this law being
Speaker 1: received across the West Bank? Or is it a case
Speaker 1: that Palestinians right now have focused on much more immediate
Speaker 1: problems settler violence and land grabs, that the law hasn't
Speaker 1: registered so much.
Speaker 5: Both of true.
Speaker 3: I mean there were demonstrations in several cities, also in
Speaker 3: Ghaza and in the West Bank.
Speaker 5: Hundreds of protesters have taken to the street across the
Speaker 5: Palestinian territories that after Israel's parliament passed a measure establishing
Speaker 5: the death penalty.
Speaker 3: People are alarmed, of course, because if there was any
Speaker 3: hope until October seven of prisoners and their families to
Speaker 3: be released, the only hopes were either political agreement that
Speaker 3: has become more and more impossible in the last fifteen
Speaker 3: or twenty years even and the other option was an
Speaker 3: operation of taking soldiers as prisoners or others, and this
Speaker 3: has failed, as we see.
Speaker 5: After October seven, because the price.
Speaker 3: Of the Palestinian society, and especially the Palestinian society in Gaza,
Speaker 3: the price that they had to pay for the few
Speaker 3: hundreds of prisoners who were released, was far too high
Speaker 3: for people to support it. Now.
Speaker 8: But looking at the breakdown of the data from the
Speaker 8: Health Ministry as of January twenty sixth, let's take a look.
Speaker 8: You'll see that they that seventy one thousand, six hundred
Speaker 8: and sixty people have been killed at least one hundred
Speaker 8: seventy one thousand, four hundred and nineteen Palestinians have been injured,
Speaker 8: many with life altering wounds. That's one out of every
Speaker 8: fourteen people in Gaza.
Speaker 3: I think that right now this best penalty shows that
Speaker 3: Israel is getting more and more extreme in its policies
Speaker 3: towards the Palestinians. It comes together with all the other
Speaker 3: policies of economical strangulation of conditions in prisons that are
Speaker 3: really statistic.
Speaker 5: I don't have any other world for this.
Speaker 8: This is an analysis in October of last year that
Speaker 8: argue that the real number as of October of twenty
Speaker 8: twenty five, of course, was closer to one hundred thirty
Speaker 8: thousand people killed.
Speaker 3: More and more annexation of lend inside the West Bank.
Speaker 9: In August, the Israeli government announced plans to proceed with
Speaker 9: East Or E one, a plan to build thirty four
Speaker 9: hundred homes for Israeli settlers on Palestinia territory that would
Speaker 9: essentially split the occupied West Bank in two of.
Speaker 3: Taking the half of the of the Gaza strip and
Speaker 3: actually concentrating the whole population in half of the territory
Speaker 3: that was anyway so small before October twenty three.
Speaker 10: It is a landscape of complete and utter devastation. Very
Speaker 10: hard to see a single building that hasn't either been
Speaker 10: destroyed or blown up. And there are no civilians, no
Speaker 10: signs of life.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 3: It goes together with the unchecked a text of settlers
Speaker 3: against Palestinians, a text that brought to the expulsion of
Speaker 3: thousands of Palestinians in the last two or three years,
Speaker 3: and also before service of October. So everything is so intimidating.
Speaker 3: This is what's so frightening that it's a society that
Speaker 3: in its most part stands behind the government, the most
Speaker 3: extreme right wing government ever and support it.
Speaker 1: Coming up as the world focuses on Iran, has Gaza
Speaker 1: in the West Bank been forgotten? Amera Even before the
Speaker 1: war in Gaza started after October seven, Israeli settlements had
Speaker 1: been expanding. And this year we also had the Israeli
Speaker 1: government introduce some new laws which activists say have strengthened
Speaker 1: Israel's legal control over the West Bank and weakened the
Speaker 1: Palestinian authority. And they've also made it easier for Israeli
Speaker 1: settlers to buy land. Israel's Cabinet on Sunday voted in
Speaker 1: favor of beginning a process of land registration for the
Speaker 1: first time since nineteen sixty seven. So what's happening there now.
Speaker 3: All of the same and more than that. And actually
Speaker 3: what is happening since before October seven, but more so
Speaker 3: after October seven, is the carrying out of the execution
Speaker 3: of a plan that the Israeli Minister of Finance now
Speaker 3: and he is also in the Ministry of Defense. This
Speaker 3: is Betal Smotrich. And in his plan, which he called
Speaker 3: the Decisive Plan, he gave Palestinians three options, after stating
Speaker 3: that Palestinians will never be allowed to exercise their national
Speaker 3: rights inside the land between the river and the sea.
Speaker 11: When I published the Decisive Plan and later another chapter
Speaker 11: about Gaza, I wrote that we would have to conquer Gaza.
Speaker 3: One is to accept this reality of no national rights
Speaker 3: and that they will actually be second or third, or
Speaker 3: fourth or fifth great subjects in Israel, greater Israel between
Speaker 3: the river and the sea. The second option, the one
Speaker 3: that he prefers, is that they will emigrate outside of
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 5: And the third option, if they.
Speaker 3: Rejected the two first ones, is that the army and
Speaker 3: the Israeli security authorities will show them.
Speaker 5: We know how to deal with them.
Speaker 11: We will settle Gaza. We will apply sovereignty in Judea
Speaker 11: and Samaria. Yes, and we will encourage the immigration of
Speaker 11: the enemy out of here. There is no other solution.
Speaker 3: Now, on top of this, about half a year ago
Speaker 3: he came out with the map. He showed a map
Speaker 3: of the West Bank with the six enclaves. These six enclavism,
Speaker 3: if I'm not mistaken, comprise eighteen percent of the land
Speaker 3: of the West Bank, and that's where Palestinians are supposed
Speaker 3: to be. And this is the process which is happening now.
Speaker 3: Palestinians are being chased out of the majority of the
Speaker 3: territory of the West Bank into those enclaves, which means
Speaker 3: he is creating smaller Gaza strips in the West Bank
Speaker 3: which are supposed to be densely populated by police, stingians.
Speaker 3: No land, no in argriculture, nothing will be just six
Speaker 3: huge how could they call it concentration caps.
Speaker 5: People will hang me for this, but these.
Speaker 3: Are areas where Palestinians will be concentrated, so that the
Speaker 3: majority of the seventy two percent of the West Bank
Speaker 3: will be free for Jewish settlement. This is what is
Speaker 3: being carried out now.
Speaker 1: So Amera we know that the world's now focused on Iran.
Speaker 1: So do you see anything changing on the ground in
Speaker 1: the West Bank or do you think it's more likely
Speaker 1: that while the international communities occupied elsewhere, it's looking away
Speaker 1: that we see Israel continue to change laws to strengthen
Speaker 1: its control and, as its critics say, to give settlers
Speaker 1: a free reign in the West Bank.
Speaker 3: You know, the settlers. The free rend that the settlers
Speaker 3: have is because the state is behind them, So we
Speaker 3: should not see the settlers as something set rate. Look.
Speaker 3: I usually say that I don't like to give prophecies,
Speaker 3: but it seems that right now the world really doesn't listen.
Speaker 3: Israel is really committing so many crimes and violations and
Speaker 3: enhancing its expulsion policy, then the Palestinians rightly feel completely
Speaker 3: orphaned or abandoned by the international community. There are voices,
Speaker 3: the are movements that understand the danger that Israel puts
Speaker 3: the whole world with these policies. But of course, when
Speaker 3: we are still under the shadow of Trump, it's very
Speaker 3: hard to think about the West Bank or to pay
Speaker 3: attention to the West Bank and Gaza, and to Palestinians
Speaker 3: in Israel too that are exposed to Israeli more and
Speaker 3: more racist laws and policies. Right now, what I see
Speaker 3: is a very very blik future.
Speaker 1: Amira, Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Also in the news, Iran has dismissed a Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: declaration that the US will soon begin blockading ships entering
Speaker 1: or leaving the Strait of hor Moves after peace talks
Speaker 1: between American and Iranian negotiators collapsed over the weekend. Trump
Speaker 1: said the US Navy would stop any and all ships
Speaker 1: from passing through the crucial trade route. Iran is warning
Speaker 1: that any military vessels approaching the strait would be dealt
Speaker 1: with severely, while the Speaker of Parliament says Tehran will
Speaker 1: not surrender under threats, and Pauline Hansen says a convicted
Speaker 1: rapist who'd been working as One Nation's campaign manager has
Speaker 1: now been sacked. Sean Black was jailed for raping twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen and rehired by the two years later after serving
Speaker 1: his sentence. One Nation had come under attack after Coalition
Speaker 1: figures raised questions about Black, but Hansen says she'd received
Speaker 1: no internal complaints and that he'd done a great job
Speaker 1: since returning to One Nation. I'm Nicole Johnston and this
Speaker 1: is seven am. Thanks for listening,