As did the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom in a joint press release, Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, made a direct appeal to the Israeli authorities on Sunday 29 March, urging them to abandon the legislative proposals before the Knesset to extend the use of the death penalty.
Official letters have been sent to the Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, and to the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog.
The Secretary General denounced the text as “grave step backwards from Israel’s long-standing de facto moratorium”.
Israel abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1954 and has not carried out an execution since Adolf Eichmann in 1962.
On 25 March, the delegates of the Council of Europe’s foreign affairs ministers had already expressed their “deep concern” about these bills and called on the Israeli authorities to abandon them.
The Dutch Socialist, Gala Veldhoen, the Parliamentary Assembly’s general rapporteur on the death penalty, did the same on 27 March, stressing in particular the discriminatory dimension of this extended use of capital punishment to a Palestinian who kills an Israeli, but not vice versa.
The text stipulates that: “Anyone who intentionally or through indifference causes the death of an Israeli citizen or resident, for reasons of racism, hostility or with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people, is liable to the death penalty”.
For the rapporteur, the adoption of these legislative proposals “would seriously jeopardise Israel’s observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)”.
Alain Berset also reiterated this status, stating that “the Council of Europe is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and in all places” and pointing out that “any development departing from European human rights standards risks moving Israel further away from the framework of values with which it has long chosen to align itself”.
A report by Gala Veldhoen on the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances is due to be debated by the Parliamentary Assembly on 22 April. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)