Adoption of a bill by Israeli cabinet ministers aimed at imposing tougher penalties on stone-throwers is the latest discriminatory measure by Israel, singling out Palestinians, a Palestinian diplomat said.
The draft law stipulates 10 years in jail for stone-throwers without the need to prove the defendant’s intention to harm anyone.
“When it comes to the Palestinians and Israelis, Israel has two different judicial systems. One is applicable to Israeli citizens and the other for Palestinians,” Maen Rashid Areikat, the chief of Palestinian Liberation Organization delegation in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think it [the bill] will have any effect on Israelis, because it is, in terms of content, only applicable to Palestinians. It is discriminatory, singling out Palestinians.”
The draft law in question that won preliminary parliamentary approval late last year allowed for sentences of up to 20 years in jail for throwing a rock at Israelis.
Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s new justice minister, said in Twitter post that a ministerial committee approved her proposed amendments to the stone-throwing bill, which included an additional tier of 10 years’ imprisonment without the necessity to prove the defendant intended to harm anyone.
At present, Israeli prosecutors usually seek a minimum of three months in jail for stone-throwing.
