ACCORDING to an Al-Jazeera report, “... of the Palestinians tried for offences committed in the occupied West Bank, 99.74 per cent were found guilty ... conviction rates for settlers found guilty by civilian courts of committing crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) between 2005 and 2024 ran to about 3pc”. Also, the same channel reported, quoting The Guardian newspaper, that Israel has yet to prosecute any of its citizens for killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank “since the start of this decade”.

Just imagine, if another country were to sentence only Christians or Jews to death, for any crime, there would have been a huge outcry, with possible sanctions imposed on that country. Even the widely reviled apartheid regimes of South Africa never enacted such a law. Yet, just because it is Israel, Western powers have only voiced mute criticism. This is shameless hypocrisy and double standards at work.

Shakir Lakhani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2026