Indonesia calls Israel death penalty law ‘grave violation’ of human rights
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Palestinian demonstrators march in the occupied West Bank on April 1 during a protest against the Israeli Parliament's approval of a new death penalty Bill.
PHOTO: AFP
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JAKARTA – Indonesia has criticised Israel’s approval of a death penalty Bill applicable to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as a “grave violation of international human rights and humanitarian law”.
Under the law, passed in Parliament on March 30, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as “terrorism” will face the death penalty as a default sentence.
It has been criticised by the United Nations and European Union, while the US came out in support of “Israel’s sovereign right to determine its own laws”.
In a statement published on social media platform X on April 1, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry urged Israel to revoke the law and reaffirmed “its full support for the struggle of the Palestinian people to achieve independence”.
As part of conflict across the Middle East, three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed this week during fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Indonesia also calls on the international community, in particular the United Nations, to take firm measures to ensure accountability and protection for the Palestinian people,” Jakarta said in the post.
The South-east Asian country still has the death penalty in its penal code – including for drug trafficking – but has maintained a moratorium on executions for several years.
There are dozens of traffickers on death row in the country.
Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one Indonesian and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad. AFP
