Israel has created a two-tier justice system. The Knesset passed a death penalty bill that, as documented on Breaking Points, applies almost exclusively to Palestinians for so-called 'nationalist' acts against the state, while exempting violent Jewish settlers. Sentences will be handed down in military courts where conviction rates approach 99%.
This legal escalation coincides with a crackdown on religious expression. On Palm Sunday, Israeli authorities closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - a site that remained open through two world wars. On The Tucker Carlson Show, Bishop Strickland argued this was not a security measure but a 'moral aberration,' a sign of state power overriding sacred ground.
The closures appear selective. Tucker Carlson noted that while synagogues remained open, Christian sites were shuttered. Strickland framed it as a regime operating on 'might makes right' feeling threatened by the truth represented by a non-violent savior.
Bishop Strickland, The Tucker Carlson Show:
- Truth is threatening.
- For those who are promoting all of these things, closure of holy sites and attack of innocent people, they are definitely threatened by the truth.
The military's role as an enforcer of this system was laid bare when IDF soldiers from the Netza Yehuda battalion assaulted CNN journalists filming illegal settlements. One soldier candidly told CNN he assists settlers out of a desire for 'revenge.' Accountability, observers note, only followed because the victims were American press, a protection Palestinians lack.
The legislative and religious actions together mark a consolidation of control. Krystal Ball called the death penalty law 'a blatantly apartheid law,' arguing it formalizes a separate and unequal judicial track for an occupied population while the state extends its authority over the sacred sites of other faiths.
Krystal Ball, Breaking Points:
- This is a blatantly apartheid law that only applies to Palestinians and not to Jewish Israelis.
- Palestinians are subjected to military tribunals where the conviction rate is effectively based on show trials and coerced confessions.
