Israel’s death penalty law could spell suspension from rights body role, says chief

Israel’s observer status at the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly could be suspended over the country’s new law mandating the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of some offences, the president of the body has said.

Petra Bayr, an Austrian Social Democrat and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), said not using the death penalty was “really a requirement” of having observer status at the pan-European human rights body, which has no connection to the EU.

The Israeli parliament’s observer status “might be suspended until there is a decision [against] or until it is clear that the law will not go into force”, she said. “There are red lines … even a non-discriminatory death penalty is a no-go.”

Bayr spoke to the Guardian after Israel’s parliament passed a law mandating the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly acts of terror in military courts in occupied Palestine.

Palestinians convicted of the same crimes in Israel’s civilian courts face the death penalty or life imprisonment. Jewish Israelis are in effect protected from the death penalty by a provision that applies the law only to murder committed with the “intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel”.

Human rights groups have petitioned Israel’s supreme court to strike down the law.

Petra Bayr speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Monday. Photograph: Ronald Wittek/EPA

The Knesset has held observer status since 1957 at the Strasbourg assembly, which brings together 46 member states to promote democracy and human rights across Europe and beyond, and is the parent organisation of the European court of human rights.

Officials could not recall any parliament losing observer status. Russia, a former member of the Council of Europe, was stripped of Pace voting rights in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea and eventually withdrew from the entire council under threat of expulsion after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Israel’s observer status was already in question after a motion signed by a cross-party group of parliamentarians last June urged Israeli authorities “to comply with international humanitarian law” in Gaza, referencing starvation, lack of access to medical care and civilians without any safe place of refuge.

Despite fast-moving events in the Middle East, turning a motion into an actionable text backed by a majority of the assembly’s 306 parliamentarians can take up to two years.

Bayr said a decision on the Gaza motion could advance in June “if it is fast-tracked”, and she suggested a statement on the death penalty could be included in this text.

MPs are expected to raise concerns about the Knesset’s death penalty vote during a long-planned vote on capital punishment this month.

The assembly will vote on 22 April on a report by Gala Veldhoen, a Dutch leftwing MP. This wide-ranging report “strongly urges Israel to maintain its longstanding abolition of the death penalty for ordinary crimes [and] refrain from expanding the list of crimes punishable by death in a discriminatory manner”.

Meirav Ben-Ari, an Israeli opposition politician who leads Israel’s delegation to Pace, said the death penalty legislation passed in the Knesset was “entirely contrary to my worldview and that of many Israelis”.

In a statement, she said: “Petitions against this populist law have already been filed with the supreme court, and I am confident the judiciary will strike down many of its provisions, if not the law entirely.”

She said she remained committed to the values that underpinned the Israeli delegation’s partnership with Pace, adding: “It is my sincere hope that the assembly will refrain from taking extreme measures against the Knesset delegation so that together we may continue to advance our shared objectives.”

Israel abolished the death penalty for most crimes in 1954 and has long had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment. The Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed, in 1962.