Occupied West Bank on strike against Israeli death penalty law

Palestinian shops and public institutions were closed across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in protest of an Israeli law passed earlier this week permitting the execution of Palestinians convicted of deadly terror attacks.

In the Palestinian territory’s main cities of Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus, most stores were closed with their shutters down at midday, AFP journalists reported.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party had called for a general strike the previous day.

In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority north of Jerusalem, entire shopping centres were closed as well as the city’s main market.

People gathered to march against the law backed by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“It’s a crazy law to be passed, it’s insane,” said Mohammed Gussein, a 24-year-old student at Al-Quds University, which like all Palestinian universities, was on strike.

“It’s completely out of touch with humanity, and completely racist,” he told AFP.

Riman, a 53-year-old psychologist from Ramallah, told AFP that “there isn’t a single person standing here who doesn’t have a brother, a husband, a son, or even a neighbour in prison. There is no Palestinian family without a prisoner.”

“But honestly, today we feel a lot of anger, because there is also a real weakness in solidarity with them. The occupation (Israel) is betting on the weakness of the street,” said Riman, declining to share her last name.

Under the new law, passed in parliament late Monday, Palestinians in the West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as “terrorism” will face the death penalty as a default sentence.

Because Palestinians in the territory are automatically tried in Israeli military courts, the measure effectively creates a separate and harsher legal track.

In Israeli civilian courts, the law allows for either death or life imprisonment for those convicted of killing with intent to harm the state.

While the law does not provide for retroactive application, critics say the distinction underscores a system of unequal justice.

On social media, Palestinians shared images of tyres being burnt in protest of the law at the Qalandia checkpoint, one of the West Bank’s busiest entry points into Israel via Jerusalem, on Wednesday.