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Deportations and Death Penalty: Normalization of Racist Cruel Punishments Disguised as Counterterrorism

>> Read the full Position Paper 

 

From Rabbi Meir Kahane and Kach’s schemes to Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s “Decisive Plan,” the far right in Israel had for years called for the execution, deportation, and revocation of citizenship/residency of Palestinians.

These days, in a cynical and shameful exploitation of the severe war being endured by Israel and the unbearable price paid by its citizens for the worst fiasco in the country’s history, the far right is advancing four draconian bills in the Knesset disguised as combating terrorism. Leading this effort is the Otzma Yehudit party, a senior partner in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “government of bloodshed,” which under the cover of war has been campaigning on the issue and pushing the far right’s well-known political agenda.

According to Zulat’s position paper, authored by Attorney Eitay Mack, these bills aim to normalize for Israeli society the arbitrary, cruel, and massive denial of basic human rights of Palestinians. They propose racist cruel punishments that would apply only to Palestinians, be they Israeli citizens or residents of territories occupied by Israel. These collective punishments would apply even to those with no direct connection to the offense, such as children, and would at the same time legitimize Jewish terrorism.

Even if they are ultimately not enacted, the sole purpose of these bills is to radicalize the discourse in Israel and, under the guise of combatting terrorism, to create public pressure to normalize extreme and racist right-wing positions concerning killings, collective punishment, severe physical and psychological injury, destruction of families and children, violation of freedoms and dignity, torture, and living conditions deliberately intended to cause physical devastation.

The proposed laws – deportation of terrorists’ families, revocation of citizenship/residency of “a person who incites terrorism,” the death penalty for terrorists, and the demolition of homes of terrorists who are Israeli citizens – are a dangerous blend that violates the right to life, the right to citizenship, the right to due process, and the right to dignity, health, housing, and freedom of movement, and breach the absolute prohibition on torture and collective punishment.

Unsurprisingly, two of these bills – on deportations and the death penalty – bear a striking resemblance to the “law enforcement” methods used by apartheid regimes in southern Africa.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.