On 30th March 2026, Israel’s Knesset passed a law that should have triggered global outrage: the introduction of the death penalty as the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of “terrorism”. Instead, we have seen the mainstream media do what it does all too frequently when it comes to criticising Israeli policy: sweep it under the carpet.
Let us not mince our words. This policy marks the formalisation of a system that assigns different values to different lives according to their nationality. It legalises the murdering of Palestinians in custody that has already seen at least 94 Palestinians die in Israeli prisons between 7 October 2023 and 31 August 2025, with many bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation. Israel’s decision should have prompted what has long been overdue: a clear and immediate reevaluation of Britain’s policy toward Israel from the UK government.
Because this law does not emerge in isolation. It is being introduced in the context of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, where at least 75,000 people have been killed. This is taking place alongside the displacement of more than 90% of the population, a systematic blockade of border crossings, and severe restrictions on aid.
In the West Bank, settlement expansion, approval of the E1 bypass through the heart of the area, military raids, and settler violence continue alongside widespread detention without trial. Israeli security forces and settlers have killed over 1000 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, with one in five of these children. One such child was 9-year-old Mohammad Bahjat Al-Hallaq, who was shot while playing football in Ar-Rihiya, Hebron last October.
Against this horrifying backdrop, the introduction of capital punishment marks a further escalation in how Palestinian life is devalued under the prevailing Israeli political and legal system.
It also further exposes the reality of an apartheid state. Palestinians and Israelis living in the same territory are governed by fundamentally different legal regimes. Palestinians are subject to military law and military courts, while Israeli citizens, including illegal settlers, are governed by civilian law. This produces two separate systems of justice based on nationality and ethnicity, with vastly different rights, protections, and outcomes. The introduction of the death penalty for Palestinians alone deepens that inequality to its most extreme form.
The legislation makes the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of “terrorism” in Israeli military courts. These courts already operate with conviction rates exceeding 96%, rely on secret evidence, and routinely deny defendants basic fair trial guarantees. Proceedings are often conducted in Hebrew, with limited or inadequate interpretation, and are presided over by judges who are serving military officers.
International condemnation has rightfully been swift but impotent in terms of delivering meaningful action to force Israel to change course on its widespread, continuous violations of international law. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that the law could amount to a war crime. Human rights organisations have gone further, describing it as a tool that entrenches an apartheid system where legal outcomes depend on ethnicity, not evidence.
Yet the response from the UK Government has been muted. The UK has long maintained that it opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. That position requires consistency. It cannot be selectively applied. It must be reflected in policy, not only principle.
At present, it is not, with the UK seemingly turning a blind eye to capital punishment when meted out to Palestinians.
The UK continues to pursue trade relations and maintain cooperation with Israel without adequately addressing how these relationships interact with a broader system of oppression that now includes mandatory use of the death penalty against an occupied population.
A consistent response would require immediate action. The government should suspend ongoing trade negotiations with Israel and review existing agreements in light of human rights obligations. It should prohibit the import of goods and services produced in illegal settlements and take steps to prevent UK investment in settlement-linked businesses and any companies involved in the genocide and facilitating breaches of international law. It should also apply necessary, comprehensive sanctions against individuals and entities – including the Israeli government and the IDF – responsible for advancing or implementing policies that violate international law. Finally, it must comply with all the obligations outlined in the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory opinion on Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian Territory.
Depressingly, it is far from likely that this Prime Minister and his Labour Government will take these actions, given its willingness to remain complicit in the perpetuation of a genocide against the Palestinian people over the past two and a half years.
If the UK’s opposition to the death penalty is to mean anything, it must be reflected in action. This historical moment requires more than statements of concern. Sadly, that is all we have gotten.
History will judge the Government poorly for its failure to initiate a fundamental reassessment of trade, diplomatic, and security policy with respect to the Netanyahu government, and to take concrete steps to ensure the UK is not complicit in violations of international law.
If genocide, starvation, and now the introduction of a death penalty embedded within a system of apartheid are not red lines for this Labour government, then what is? How many Palestinians must be wiped off the face of the earth for Keir Starmer to act?
Because once a state claims the right to execute a population it occupies through a system that denies them equal protection under the law, it is not simply crossing a legal line; it is crossing a moral one.
