The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued an official statement criticizing Israel's reintroduction of the death penalty for terrorists, calling the move a "manifestation of the policies of denial, extermination and political execution carried out against the Palestinian people," TRT Haber reported.
„We condemn the Israeli parliament's death penalty regulation (for terrorists), which is intended to apply only to Palestinians. "This regulation, which aims to further strengthen the apartheid regime of the occupying power Israel against the Palestinians, is a new manifestation of the policies of denial, extermination and political execution carried out against the Palestinian people," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that the law "is invalid and null and void." The ministry also called on the UN and the international community "to take action against the racist and illegal actions of the occupying power Israel," the television reported. Israel's parliament approved a controversial bill to reintroduce the death penalty for terrorists, DPA reported. Critics have called the move discriminatory, as the legislation will in practice only apply to Palestinians. Human rights groups and several European countries have called for the initiative to be halted. Under the bill, Palestinians convicted of murder as an act of terrorism by military courts in the occupied territories would receive the death penalty. In Israeli civilian courts, a person found guilty of murder with a terrorist motive with the aim of destroying the State of Israel could be sentenced to either death or life imprisonment, according to the law.