Iraqi Parliament Passes Death Penalty for “relations of any kind” with “Zionist Entity”
On May 26, Iraq’s parliament passed a bill titled “Law Criminalizing Normalization with the Zionist Entity.” First introduced on May 11 by the Sadrist bloc, the new law, available in Arabic here, intensifies existing bans on civil engagement with Israel or its citizens, to the point of prescribing death for “crimes” as innocuous as a social media exchange.
Before today, Iraq’s anti-normalization law was both short and broad. It stated: “Anyone who applauds or promotes the principles of Zionism, including Masonry, or belongs to any of its institutions, or aids them materially, morally, or works in any way to achieve their ends, will be punished by execution.” The new law elaborates and sharpens its precedent through eight provisions:
It prohibits all forms of communication with Israel and its citizens.
It prohibits travel to Israel.
It prohibits “promoting Zionist or Masonic ideas… whether overtly or covertly,” including through social media communications.
It prohibits accepting Israeli aid, donations, or gifts, on pain of “either permanent or temporary imprisonment.”
It prohibits “any sort of relationship” with the “Zionist entity … be it diplomatic, economic, political, military, security, or any other sort of relationship” on pain of “death or life imprisonment.”
It explicitly stipulates that all government officials, from the President down to local administrators, would be punished by “death or life imprisonment.”
It prohibits laws of mitigating circumstances, general amnesties, or individual pardons from applying to anyone found guilty of promoting normalization.
It asserts jurisdiction over all Iraqis globally, as well as foreign residents or visitors to the country.
The law’s final form differs from the original draft in four key respects:
It omits the first draft’s claims to jurisdiction over social media companies, foreign companies, and foreign investors residing in Iraq, mostly narrowing the law’s scope to Iraqi citizens. (The law nonetheless forbids “foreigners… from promoting normalization or calls for establishing relations with the Zionist Entity within Iraqi territory,” without specifying their penalty for doing so.)
It retains the first draft’s ban on travel to Israel, but adds an exemption for “religious visits authorized in advance by the Interior Ministry.”
It adds a prohibition on “Masonic ideas, principles, ideologies, and behaviors” to the first draft’s exclusive focus on Zionism.
It removes the first draft’s language requiring the dissolution of any private company or civil society organization found to have violated the law and expropriation of its assets.
The following abridged translation of the law’s final form uses “strikethrough” to mark portions of the original bill that have been deleted and italics to mark the new insertions. It has been reformatted for clarity.
Law Forbidding Normalization and Establishing Relations with the Zionist Entity
Committee Recommendation:
[Renaming it the] Law Criminalizing Normalization with the Zionist Entity
Article __:
The terms and expressions to come are to be clearly defined, for the purposes of this law, as follows:
“The Zionist entity”: The Israeli entity which has been occupying the State of Palestine since 1948, or any other Arab territories.
“Normalization”: Any action which necessarily entails any semblance of cooperation with the Zionist entity, or would lead to it, whether directly or indirectly, and seeks to establish relations with the Zionist entity.
Article 1 - This law aims to achieve the following:
“Normalization with the occupying, Zionist entity usurping Palestinian lands in any form whatsoever is hereby declared unlawful.”
“The establishment of diplomatic, political, military, economic, cultural, or any relations of any other kind with the occupying Zionist entity are hereby forbidden.”
Committee Recommendation:
Article __ :
This law aims to achieve the following:
Banning and criminalizing normalization with the Zionist entity
Preventing the establishment of relations with the Zionist entity in any form whatsoever.
Article 2 - The provisions of this law apply to the following:
Iraqis both inside and outside of Iraq, including officials, state employes, those charged with public service whether civilian or military, and foreign residents of Iraq;
All state institutions, federal authorities, and independent bodies;
Regional governments, parliamentary councils, bureaus, and institutions;
Governors, unregulated provincial councils in local and regional administrations as well as their related bureaus;
Iraqi Media outlets;
Social media outlets;
Iraqi civil society organizations and institutions;
Private companies, foreign companies, foreign investors working in Iraq.
Committee Recommendation:
Article __ :
This law applies to all of the following:
Iraqis (either by birth or naturalized) resident in Iraq or outside of it.
Iraqi state institutions and all Federal authorities (legislative, executive, and judicial).
The presidency, regional governments in Iraq, their parliamentary councils, the governorates’ councils, and all local administrations and institutions.
Local administrations in Iraq, unregulated provincial councils as well as all of their related bureaus and institutions.
Iraqi media outlets working inside and outside of Iraq.
Penal Code:
Article 3:
Normalization and the establishment of diplomatic, political, military, economic, cultural, or any relations of any other kind with the occupying Zionist entity are hereby forbidden.
Committee Recommendation:
Delete Article 3 and renumber the subsequent articles to match.
Article 4:
The terms “normalization” and “establishing relations” as used in Article 3 of this law encompass any of the following actions:
Traveling to or from the territory of the occupying Zionist entity. Also prohibited are visiting its embassies and institutions in any country, anywhere in the world.
Informing for and communicating with — via any means — the occupying Zionist entity and those affiliated with it or who represent it, whether as an individual or an institution or organization, under any banner, be it cultural, political, academic, commercial, economic, media, security-related or anything else.
Establishing relations with the occupying Zionist entity, diplomatic, or economic, or political, or military, or cultural, or any other kind of relations.
Normalization with the occupying Zionist entity or promoting it or any of its ideas, principles, ideologies, or Zionist or Israeli behaviors, by any means whatever, whether secret or covertly. Th[ese means] include conferences, gatherings, compositions, merchandise, social media outlets, the virtual world, participating in conferences, activities implemented or sponsored by Zionist or other institutions which promote normalization with it [i.e. Israel] or establishing relations with it.
Belonging to any of the occupying Zionist entity’s institutions, or morally or materially aiding them.
Doing anything which achieves Zionist aims.
Accepting any type of aide, donation, or gift from the Zionist entity, its institutions, or institutions promoting it or normalization with it.
Offering any kind of aid or donations, for any reason, connected to the Zionist entity or its institutions or institutions promoting it and normalization with it.
Committee Recommendation:
Delete Article 4 and in its place insert the following, renumbering subsequent articles to match:
Anyone who travels to the Zionist entity, visits one of its embassies or institutions around the world, or communicates with anyone from it, will be punished with a term of imprisonment, either permanent or temporary.
The provisions of this article do not apply to religious visits which are authorized in advance by the Interior Ministry.
Anyone who offers any sort of aid, donation, or gift from the Zionist entity or its institutions will be punished by a term of imprisonment, permanent or temporary.
Anyone who establishes any sort of relationship with the Zionist entity, be it diplomatic, economic, political, military, security or any other sort of relationship will be punished by death or life imprisonment.
Anyone who normalizes with or informs for the Zionist entity, promotes it or any of its Zionist or Masonic ideas, principles, ideologies, behaviors by any means, whether overtly or covertly, including conferences, gatherings, publications, compositions, social media, or any other means shall be punished by death or life imprisonment.
Anyone who belongs to any institution of the Zionist entity will be punished by death or life imprisonment.
The punishment shall be death or life imprisonment if any of the criminal actions proscribed in Clauses ______ of this law is committed by the President of the Republic or his deputies, the Head of the Cabinet or his deputies, the Speaker of the House of Representatives or his deputies, the head of the Higher Judicial Council of the head of the Federal Court, the heads of the regional governments, the heads of regional parliaments or their ministers or others of their station, members of the House of Representatives or ministers of regional governments, members of regional parliaments, either the head of the Court of Cassation or any of its members, the head of the Public Prosecution or any of its members, the head of the Judiciary Oversight Commission or any of its members, of any ministry or anyone of comparable station, heads of Federal court or any member of the judiciary, general managers or those of comparable station, party chiefs, political entities or anyone belonging to any of the military or security agencies.
Article 5:
Undertaking any of the actions forbidden in article 4 of this law is a crime punishable by execution or life in prison.
The accusation of high treason shall be levied, and the punishment shall be execution, if any of the crimes described in Article 4 of this law are committed by the President of the Republic or his deputies, or by the Speaker of the House of Representatives or his deputies, or by the Head of the Cabinet or his deputies, or by a member of the House of Representatives or a Minister or someone of their station, or a Deputy Minister or someone of his station, or a General Manager or someone of his station.
Committee Recommendation:
Delete Article 5 and reorder subsequent clauses to match.
Article 6:
Private companies, institutions, civil society organizations working in Iraq, if they are found to have committed any of the actions described in Article 4 of this law, will be dissolved without breaching the partial responsibility, established in accordance with this law, of the individuals working within [said organization]. That organization will be forbidden to reestablish itself or renew its operations in Iraq.
Foreign companies and investors working in Iraq shall be expelled if they are found to have committed any of the actions described in Article 4 of this law, without breaching the partial responsibility, established in accordance with this law, of the individuals working for them. They shall also be forbidden from working again in Iraq again.
In addition to the punishments established in accord with this law's provisions, both fixed and movable property, belonging to any institutions, civil society organizations, foreign companies, or foreign investors highlighted in clauses 1 and 2 of this article, shall be expropriated.
Committee Recommendation:
Delete Article 6 and reorder subsequent clauses to match.
Article 7:
The court shall mandate the expropriation of written publications and compositions that promote normalization with the occupying Zionist entity or establishing relations with it.
Committee Recommendation:
Article __:
All publications, compositions, or any other means used to promote normalization with the Zionist entity will be confiscated without prejudicing criminal liability to the perpetrator of the crime in accordance with this law.
Article 8:
Anyone who commits any of the crimes described in Article 4 of this law may not benefit from the “mitigating circumstances” which appear in Number 111 of the amended penal code of 1969, or any other law acting in its stead.
Committee Recommendation:
Article __:
The legal statutes of innocence or mitigating judicial circumstances in the Amended Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 or any other law concerning someone who has committed one of the crimes in this law shall not apply, and neither a general amnesty nor a[n individual] pardon shall extend to them.
Concluding Provisions
Committee Recommendation:
Inserting new articles and re-numbering subsequent articles to match.
Article __:
Foreigners are forbidden from promoting normalization or calls for establishing relations with the Zionist Entity within Iraqi territory.
Article __:
The provisions of the amended Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 will govern anything not addressed in this law.
Article 9:
Any text contravening the provisions of this law shall be rendered invalid.
Article 10:
This law will be operative from the date that the House of Representatives passes it and publishes it in the official record.
Committee Recommendation:
This law will go into effect once it is published in the official record.
The reasons enjoining [passage of this law]:
In order to preserve national, Islamic, and human principles in Iraq, and in view of the grave danger that is entailed in normalization with the occupying Zionist entity or promoting it, or informing for it, or establishing any relations with it, and [the need to] impede anyone who wishes to establish any kind of relations with the occupying Zionist entity, and put in place deterrent punishments against them, and preserve the unity among the sons of the Iraqi people and its Islamic and national identity.
Pass this law.
Committee Recommendation:
The reasons enjoining [passage of this law]:
In order to preserve national, Islamic, and human principles in Iraq, the immutable principles of the Iraqi people in defending Palestine and her people and all the Arab peoples whose lands have been occupied, and deter all who work for normalization and establishing relations with this usurping entity.
This law is hereby passed.