The Israeli Parliament (or Knesset) approved last night a temporary arrangement this will allow the country’s courts to sentence minors from the age of 12 to prison if they are found guilty of murder for “terrorist” reasons.
Under this rule, minors aged 12 to 14 can be sentenced to prison and locked up in a center until the age of 14, when Israeli law allows their transfer to prison. In Israel, criminal liability begins at age 12 but Prison sentences can only be applied from the age of 14.
In force for five years
The new rule is a temporary provision that will be in force for five years, but it may be renewed for periods of two years after its expiration. A similar rule was in effect between 2016 and 2020, but was not renewed.
The provision was presented, among others, by parliamentarians from the ultranationalist Jewish Power party, led by the current Minister of National Security, the anti-Arab settler Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, condemned the measure in a statement in which it accused Israeli authorities of punishing the miners for their “resistance and rejection of the occupation, in violation of international treaties“on the rights of children.
Hamas, which killed more than thirty minors during its attacks on October 7, 2023 against Israel, recalled that Israeli forces killed more than 17,000 children during its offensive against Gaza, and called on the international community to “oppose this fascist law”.
Since its return to activity after the summer vacation at the end of October, the Israeli Parliament approved a series of controversial measuressuch as the ban in Israel of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the deportation of relatives of “terrorists” to Gaza or the dismissal of teachers for having expressed their support for the Palestinian armed struggle.
In Israel, the term “terrorist” is used interchangeably to refer to attacks on civilians or attacks on Israeli soldiers committed by Palestinian armed groups, both on Israeli territory and in the occupied West Bank or Gaza.
