From genocide in Gaza to the death penalty in the occupied West Bank, Israel seeks the annihilation of Palestinian resistance and, on a slower pace, further ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

The latest statistics, which have been considered conservative estimates but continue to be shared as the officially recognised kill toll by the Palestinian health ministry, show that Israel killed 72,312 people and injured 172,134. By the end of 2025, Israel had killed 21,283 Palestinian children.

On Monday, the Israeli Knesset approved a bill that imposes the death penalty upon Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis. Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians, however, will not share the same fate. In colonial logic, twisted as it is, the differentiation makes sense, for how would Israel have even been created had Zionism not allowed and planned for the killing of Palestinians? What Zionism achieved through its paramilitary terror, Israel now implements in legislation. 

Many confessions are obtained under torture. Israel has exposed its torture to the world through footage from Gaza. There is no longer any pretence of not knowing. In both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Israel is contributing the same tactics to endorse killing Palestinians.

Many confessions are obtained under torture. Israel has exposed its torture to the world through footage from Gaza. There is no longer any pretence of not knowing. In both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Israel is contributing the same tactics to endorse killing Palestinians.

The only difference is the final blow – bombs for Gaza and execution by hanging in the occupied West Bank. Both constitute a spectacle for diplomacy to play its rhetorical games. Both increase a kill toll the world closed its eyes to since the 1948 Nakba. 

Israeli rights group B’Tselem issued a statement, noting, “The death penalty law will institutionalise a state mechanism for executing Palestinians. The law is worded to apply to Palestinians only, and is set to normalise their execution as a common punitive tool through several measures.” 

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Israeli leaders incited for genocide through their rhetoric. Several Israeli lawmakers wore noose-shaped pins to express their support of executing Palestinians by hanging. In both cases, the international response was predictably weak – preaching to international law what international law states. 

Israel knows it is violating international law. World leaders know and allow Israel impunity for these violations. In the space between condemnations and inaction, the international community created normalisation for Israel and its actions. It normalised genocide for Israel; execution by hanging will strike less of an impact within the international community.

Ultimately, colonialism, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the apartheid system that allows for this form of execution legislation are all part of the fabric that the international community endorses.  

Ultimately, colonialism, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the apartheid system that allows for this form of execution legislation are all part of the fabric that the international community endorses.  

The international community cannot choose to legitimise, protect and support Israel without extending the same to Israel’s actions. No matter how much colonialism is obliterated from the equation, the fact remains that the international community is supporting the entire structure of Israel’s colonial framework, which includes genocide and executions, among the rest of its violations. With Israel, world leaders cannot operate in fragments. Supporting Israel and not its genocide makes no sense – Israel was founded upon ethnic cleansing in 1948. That is why the international community remains silent except for its perfunctory statements. Israeli colonialism makes it clear that there is separation from the colonial enterprise and its actions, and no world leader is ready to take the first step in decolonisation by accepting nothing of Israel and its actions. 

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