Israel’s far-right government has pushed through the first reading of a bill introducing the death penalty for “terrorism,” a law crafted to target Palestinians. The vote passed 39 to 16, sponsored by Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The bill restricts execution to those who kill an Israeli “out of racist motives,” a clause so selectively framed that even Israeli legal analysts acknowledge it will fall almost entirely on Palestinians. For a people already subjected to military courts with conviction rates above ninety per cent, this provision offers no justice. It is another tool in an occupation that legislates the unequal value of human life.
This comes while the world speaks of a ceasefire. On the ground, Gaza continues to be struck from the air and the sea. Gaza’s Government Media Office has documented at least 282 violations of the truce in its first month, including strikes on homes, artillery fire and incursions into civilian areas. Israeli forces attacked Gaza on twenty-five of the thirty-one days following 10 October, contradicting claims that hostilities have meaningfully ceased.
Over two years of bombardment, the death toll has risen above sixty-nine thousand, with many more still buried under the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods. The scale of human loss rarely appears in Western coverage, which continues to frame the crisis through a false language of symmetry.
Gaza’s collapse extends beyond the dead. Aid flows remain sporadic, blocked by Israeli registration requirements and border closures. UNICEF warns that the education system is nearing total failure, with more than ninety per cent of schools and universities damaged or destroyed.
A recent health assessment reported famine-level conditions in Gaza City, but the world’s most powerful governments respond with silence, avoiding the question of accountability.
This silence has consequences. The International Court of Justice and leading genocide scholars have already stated that Israel’s conduct meets the legal definition of genocide, yet global institutions refuse to name it. Even the “Gaza genocide” Wikipedia page has been locked for “neutrality,” as if the figures were still in dispute.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to supply weapons without conditions, and European states prepare to resume defence sales. The public pressure that forced a temporary ceasefire is dissipating as diplomatic routines return. This is complicity: the readiness to look away once the images fade.
The world must insist on a political solution that ends the siege, begins reconstruction and recognises Palestinian rights. No Israeli law, no temporary pause in fighting and no diplomatic reset can erase the reality of more than sixty-seven thousand Palestinian deaths. *