Eight Muslim-majority countries “strongly condemned” Israel’s move to pass a law making death by hanging a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks, a joint statement released by Pakistan said on Thursday.
Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in the statement, also emphasized the “urgent need to refrain from measures” that risk further inflaming tensions on the ground.
The countries “warned against the increasingly discriminatory, escalating Israeli practices that entrench a system of apartheid and a rejectionist discourse that denies the inalienable rights and the very existence of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the statement says.
The apartheid charge is not regularly lodged against Israel, even by Muslim-majority countries and especially not by the UAE, which has a closer working relationship with Jerusalem than each of the other countries that signed onto the statement.
The choice to use the term indicates the extent to which the law has infuriated Israel’s Muslim neighbors.
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 2, 2026
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