Death Penalty in Palestine Amid Supporters and Opponents

Abstract

The death penalty is one of the deterrent punishments that have been applied in Palestine. There has been a great debate between those who call for the abolition of this penalty and those who believe that it should be kept. The group calling for the abolition of the death penalty, considered this penalty as an inhuman judgment. It is a murder that cannot be justified in the name of justice. Thus, the accession of Palestine to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, without any reservations, made it committed to all the provisions of the Covenant, including the abolition of the provisions on the death penalty, and that the penalty cannot be revoked in case the convicted is found innocent. There is no way to redress the damage happened.
While the group calling for keeping the death penalty is of the view that the existing debate regarding the penalty lies in the inappropriateness of the penalty with the crime, as it may be raised for each penalty, since reaching a full appropriateness between punishment and crime is not possible. The fear of criminals of the penalty deters them before committing any crime when they realizes that the punishment will be inflicted on them completely and inevitably. The punishment of the perpetrator according to the principle of justice is related to the wrong deeds, as nothing will stop he/ she who kills others from repeating what he/ she did again.
Therefore, it is impossible to completely abolish the application of the death penalty because it is a necessary punishment for deterring the perpetrators and maintaining the stability of life in society, with the need to restrict such punishment to very serious crimes, as well as the need to provide all judicial guarantees.