West Bank Palestinians demonstrate and go on strike over Israel’s death penalty legislation.

In protest of a new Israeli law that imposes the death penalty for Palestinians found guilty of lethal attacks, Palestinian businesses and public institutions, including colleges, were shut down throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, hundreds Palestinian people gathered in Ramallah to protest the law, which is supported by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. They chanted anti-law slogans and demanded that the international community stop the law’s passage.

At a protest in the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, demonstrators carried signs warning that time was running out. “Stop the law to execute prisoners, before it’s too late,” one sign read, showing an animation of a prisoner wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf next to a noose.

According to news agency, the majority of stores in the cities of Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus were closed with their shutters down at noon.

In the town of Anata, northeast of Jerusalem’s Old City, Palestinian store owners participating in the strike were compelled to open their businesses by Israeli soldiers. The day before, the Fatah party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had called for a countrywide strike.

The law has been denounced by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, who stated that “its applications to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime.”

More than 9,500 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including 350 children and 73 women. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups say detainees face torture, starvation and medical neglect, leading to dozens of deaths.

“But honestly, today we feel a lot of anger, because there is also a real weakness in solidarity with them. The occupation [Israel] is betting on the weakness of the street,” said Riman, declining to share her last name.

The new law, which was approved by the Israeli parliament or Knesset late on Monday, stipulates that Palestinians in the West Bank who are found guilty by military courts of carrying out lethal attacks deemed to be “terrorism” will automatically be sentenced to death. 

The policy effectively creates a distinct and harsher legal track because Palestinians in the region are automatically tried in Israeli military courts. If someone is found guilty of killing with intent to harm the state, they may be sentenced to either death or life in prison in Israeli civilian courts. Critics claim that the distinction highlights an unfair justice system even though the law does not allow for retroactive application.

“Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas” at the protesters, reported the Palestinian news agency WAFA, adding that no injuries had been reported.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence there has soared since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, which has killed more than 72,000 people.