Hamas on Wednesday evening condemned Israel’s approval of a bill that would make it harder for the bodies of slain Palestinian protesters to be given over for burial.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Kasem said the bill makes part of Israeli attempts to quell anti-occupation activism and dampen Palestinians’ spirits.
“The bill is a sign of Israel’s racist character and its ceaseless infringements of international resolutions and humanitarian law” said Kasem.
“Despite Israel’s heinous crimes the Palestinian intifada will keep going until our people land and holy sites restore their freedom” he added.
Knesset plenum voted Wednesday to pass in their first reading bills that would make it harder for the bodies of slain Palestinian protesters to be given over for burial.
The bills sponsored by extremist MKs Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) and Anat Berko (Likud) would give local police commanders the authority to set conditions for transferring the bodies of perpetrators of anti-occupation attacks for burial.
The bills are intended to quell anti-occupation attacks and prevent high profile funerals of protesters.
The legislation bypasses a High Court ruling last month which stated that the government cannot hold the bodies of Palestinians as bargaining chips a ruling that was sharply criticized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett and other extremist leaders of the right.
