The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, approved on Wednesday a law that allows the Israeli police to hold the bodies of Palestinians killed by the police or other security forces until families agree to preconditions on funeral arrangements.
According to the Haifa-based human rights center Adalah, this is a violation of both Israeli and international law.
Forty-eight Knesset members voted in favor of the law, which applies to Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli police only. It does not apply to West Bank Palestinians or to the Israeli military.
The new law was legislated following a precedent-setting Israeli Supreme Court ruling on a petition filed by Adalah � The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel which determined that Israeli police did not have the legal authority to hold bodies � particularly given that doing so constitutes a violation of basic rights.
Source: Palestine Chronicle
