Statement of QUIT! Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism on the Use of the Death Penalty in the Palestine Authority

In July 2005, four prisoners were executed by the Palestinian Authority.  There are 50 more Palestinian-held prisoners under death sentences.  QUIT! issues the following statement, in solidarity with Palestinian and international human rights organizations:

As supporters of full liberation for the Palestinian people, we were very distressed to hear of the recent execution of four prisoners by the Palestinian Authority.  The death penalty is a severe human rights abuse.  As United States human rights activists, one of our priorities is to eliminate this abuse in our own country. 

The Palestinian people very know well how much suffering is caused by disregard for international human rights standards.  The international human rights community is united in the belief that the death penalty is wrong in all cases, and cannot have a place in a just society.  To quote the statement recently issued by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, "The right to life is the most basic and fundamental of all human rights…. PCHR condemns the death penalty, irrelevant of the justification provided for imposing it, and holds that the right to life is sacrosanct."  (http://www.pchrgaza.org/special/death.htm)

QUIT! joins the call of PCHR, Amnesty International and Btselem (The Israeli Center for Human Rights In The Occupied Territories) for the abolition of the death penalty in the Palestinian Authority area.  We urge other groups in solidarity with the Palestinian people to endorse this call as well.