The Zionist Knesset imposed tougher penalties of up to 20 years prison for people throwing stones at vehicles and roads, a move one Palestinian official branded racist and excessive.
The Zionist Knesset imposed tougher penalties of up to 20 years prison for people throwing stones at vehicles and roads, a move one Palestinian official branded racist and excessive.
Lawmakers voted 69 to 17 to increase the punishments late on Monday, approving legislation proposed after a wave of Palestinian protests last year in East Jerusalem.
"Tolerance toward terrorists ends today. A stone-thrower is a terrorist and only a fitting punishment can serve as a deterrent and just punishment," the Zionist Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in a statement.
Confrontations between Palestinian youths and occupation police routinely degenerate into violent clashes usually resulting into huge losses on Palestinian side, and stone-throwing has been the only weapons of the Palestinian people to resist the Zionist occupation.
Human rights groups have criticized the Zionist entity for using excessive force including live fire in suppressing Palestinian demonstrations, causing dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries.
The new law allows for a sentence of up to 20 years in jail for throwing a rock at a vehicle with the intent of causing bodily harm and 10 years in prison if intent was not proven.
Prosecutors in such cases have usually sought sentences of no more than three months in jail when the offense does not result in serious injury.
Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Club, an organization that advocates on behalf of Palestinian prisoners in the Zionist jails, said the new law was "racist".
"This law is hateful and contradicts the most basic rule that the punishment fit the offense," he said.
The law would cover territory including East Jerusalem, but not the occupied West Bank, most of which is under the jurisdiction of the Zionist military.
The new legislation was originally promoted by Shaked's predecessor, centrist Tzipi Livni.
