The foreign minsters of the UK, Germany, France and Italy have called for Israel to ditch proposals to extend its death penalty.
In a joint statement, the ministers said they held “deep concern” about a bill that would “significantly expand” the possibilities to impose the sentence.
Israeli politicians passed the bill, which makes the death penalty by hanging the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, earlier today.
“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill. The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles,” the statement, first released on Sunday, said.
The ministers described the death penalty as an “inhumane and degrading form of punishment”.
“We urge the Israeli decision makers in Knesset and Government to abandon these plans,” they added.