BEIJING: China called on Friday for Palestinians' rights to be protected after Israel approved a bill to allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks.
Under the new law, passed by Israel's parliament on Monday, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as "terrorism" will face the death penalty as a default sentence.
"The legal rights of the Palestinian people should be respected and protected," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said when asked about the bill at a press briefing on Friday.
"We also hope relevant parties will cease actions that escalate tensions and exacerbate conflict," she said, without mentioning Israel by name.
"China believes that any law should fulfil legal principles such as equality and justice and should not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion or nationality or political views," Mao added.
A host of countries have criticized the bill, which was supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United Nations said on Tuesday that applying the new bill in occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates also lambasted the bill in a joint statement on Thursday.
"This legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation, particularly given its discriminatory application against Palestinian prisoners, and stressed that such measures risk further exacerbating tensions and undermining regional stability," the statement read.
The European Union also criticized the bill, but the United States has come out in support of "Israel's sovereign right to determine its own laws".
China still uses the death penalty and does not release statistics on executions.
Amnesty International and other rights groups believe thousands of people are executed in the country every year.
