Palestinian demonstrators march in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on April 1, 2026 during a protest against the Israeli parliament's approval of a new death penalty bill for Palestinians. AFP
In the Palestinian territory's main cities of Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus, most stores were closed with their shutters down at midday, AFP journalists reported.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party had called for a general strike the previous day.
In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority north of Jerusalem, entire shopping centres were closed as well as the city's main market.
About 150 people gathered to march against the law backed by Israel's extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
"It's a crazy law to be passed, it's insane," said Mohammed Gussein, a 24-year-old student at Al-Quds University, which like all Palestinian universities, was on strike Wednesday.
"It's completely out of touch with humanity, and completely racist," he told AFP.
Riman, a 53-year-old psychologist from Ramallah, told AFP that "there isn't a single person standing here who doesn't have a brother, a husband, a son, or even a neighbour in prison. There is no Palestinian family without a prisoner."
"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.
Under the new law, passed in parliament late Monday, Palestinians in the West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks will face the death penalty as a default sentence.
On social media, Palestinians shared images of tyres being burnt in protest of the law at the Qalandia checkpoint, one of the West Bank's busiest entry points into Israel via Jerusalem, Wednesday.
War crime
The Palestinian Authority condemned the law's adoption, saying that "Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land".
"This law once again reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover," it added.
Palestinian resistance group Hamas said the law reflected Israel's approach based on "killing and terrorism".
The United Nations on Tuesday harshly criticised the Israeli parliament's approval of a "cruel and discriminatory" new death penalty bill, warning that applying it in occupied Palestinian territory "would constitute a war crime".
A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said the world body stood "against the death penalty in all its aspects, wherever".
"The discriminatory nature of this particular law makes it particularly cruel and discriminatory, and we ask that the Israeli government rescind it and not implement it," Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
UN rights chief Volker Turk also called for the bill to be "promptly repealed", warning that it was "patently inconsistent with Israel's international law obligations".
Turk stressed that "the death penalty is profoundly difficult to reconcile with human dignity", cautioning that "its application in a discriminatory manner would constitute an additional, particularly egregious violation of international law".
"Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime."
The Israeli new law also drew an arab condemnation as Egypt slammed it as a dangerous and unprecedented escalation that clearly violates international law, including human rights conventions and the Geneva Conventions.
The Arab league strongly condemned the law, saying it violates the most basic principles of international humanitarian law and blatantly undermines the requirements of justice.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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