Hamas seeks to re-introduce death penalty for murder

Amid a surge in violent crime, leaders from the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, have begun advocating implementation of the death penalty for convicted murderers, even though carrying out capital punishment without the authorization of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would be illegal.

At a sermon during prayers at the al-Mughrabi mosque in Gaza City last Friday, Khalil al-Haya, a member of the movement's political bureau, said Hamas would take action in response to murder and, in remarks quoted by the Ma’an News Agency, called for the implementation of thirteen death sentences that were handed down by courts in recent years.

In separate remarks, Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri described the stipulation in the Basic Law of the Palestinian Authority that the president must endorse any death sentence before it is carried out as a ''formality.'' He urged a return to capital punishment, something Abbas has repeatedly shunned in recent years. Abbas heads the Fatah movement, Hamas's rival from whom the Islamic movement seized power in the Strip in 2007.

The calls come against the backdrop of two deadly crimes that have shaken the crowded coastal enclave in recent weeks and what analysts say is an overall rise in crime in the Strip that they attribute to worsening poverty as an Israeli blockade continues with no end in sight.

Two weeks ago, a 74 year old woman, Soraya al-Badri, was murdered in her apartment in Gaza City by a thief who broke in. Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji told The Media Line ''The killer is in the hands of the police and has admitted to his crime.'' The murder, widely publicized in the media, touched off a strong reaction in the Strip because of the victim's age and the fact that she was the mother of Bassam al-Badri, a well-known figure in the Strip who is the physician in charge of arranging treatment of Gaza medical patients at hospitals in Israel and the West Bank.

Another deadly crime, this time  in the central part of the Gaza Strip, which took place last month, is perhaps even more serious from Hamas's point of view because it threatens to touch off warfare between two large Gaza clans, the Abu Midein family and the Doghmush family, according to analysts.

According to Batniji, the police spokesman, the alleged killer, whom he identified as Silman Abu Midein ''opened fire with a Kalashnikov'' on victim Hamed Doghmush, killing him. Batniji said the motive was a land dispute.

Seeking a kind of blood vengeance, the Doghmush family is demanding that Hamas authorities execute Silman Abu Midein, a stance the authorities have reason to take seriously, according to Mkhaimar Abusada, who teaches political science at al-Azhar University in Gaza City.

''Palestinian society in general and Gaza in particular is very tribal and if someone commits a crime against someone from another family it becomes a tribal issue, a tribal war so that if Hamas doesn't implement the death penalty on those who commit murder, Gaza might erupt into tribal violence.'' Abusada said. ''The victim's family feels its honor has been injured and that to restore the honor the criminal must be executed. If not, victims' families will try to take the law into their own hands, something that happened during the Second Intifada [from 2000 to 2005]. Hamas is afraid of this.''

In an apparent allusion to the prospect of clan violence, al-Haya said during his mosque sermon that Hamas would not allow murder to distort the fabric of society in Gaza. Doing so, he said, would amount to playing into the hands of Israel which, he charged, wants to see the Strip in turmoil. ''The occupation is always busy in breaking the harmony of our social system,'' he said. Al-Haya called on decision-makers ''not to remain silent for a long time about implementing sentences that Abbas doesn't approve because he fears the reaction of the European Union.''

According to Ma’an, al-Masri, the Hamas legislator, said that carrying out the sentences would be the safest choice to safeguard the security of Gazan society.

Hamas has not implemented any death sentences for murder in Gaza since 2014, when it reached agreement on a national consensus government with Fatah and it stopped having a separate cabinet and prime minister for the coastal enclave. During the fifty-day Gaza war that year, Hamas summarily executed 23 people, describing many of the killings as retribution for alleged collaboration with Israel. According to Amnesty International, the vast majority of those killed were either still on trial, were in the middle of serving prison sentences, or were awaiting trials or appeals. Al-Haya said that in the thirteen cases of death sentences waiting to be implemented, all the legal procedures had been completed.

But the Independent Commission for Human Rights, the Ramallah-based human rights monitoring organization for the Palestinian Authority, is voicing deep concern over Hamas talk of a return to capital punishment. ''According to Palestinian Basic Law, no death sentences can be implemented without the approval of the president so if they go ahead with this, then it is extrajudicial killing from our point of view,'' Ammar Dweik, ICHR's director-general told The Media Line. Dweik said that some of those who received death sentences were tried before military courts despite being civilians. ''These military courts do not provide the minimum standards for fair trial,'' he said.

Samir Zakout, assistant director of al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City, said his organization was in contact with leaders in the Strip urging them not to implement the death sentences. He noted that despite the expressions of support by politicians such as al-Haya, no official decision has been taken. ''We are against it. There's no logic in violating the right to life and when you implement the death penalty it doesn't stop the crime,'' he said. ''The street wants the death penalty, people who had relatives killed want it. But we are against this kind of street justice.''