Syria may repeal its Muslim Brotherhood death law. Israel should watch

Syrian parliamentarians in Damascus have begun gathering signatures for a legislative motion to repeal Law No. 49, the July 1980 statute enacted under Hafez al-Assad that made membership in the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense punishable by death. As of October 13, the proposal had not yet been formally submitted, still requiring the support of 17 assembly members before the drafting process could begin. The immediate question is therefore not whether the law will be repealed, but whether the transitional authorities will permit the proposal to advance. A parliamentary proposal in a shattered post-Assad Syria might easily be dismissed as minor administrative noise or distant legal housekeeping. It is anything but that.