Israel approves law to strip Arab attackers of their citizenship

A masked Palestinian sits during a support rally for the Palestinian prisoners, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah,(Majdi Mohammed/AP)

 
 
 
 
 
 

Josef Federman, AP

16 February, 2023 00:08

Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a law to strip Arabs convicted in nationalistic attacks or who give money to prisoners of their Israeli citizenship or residency.

The decision, which could potentially affect hundreds of Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel, was condemned as racist by Arab politicians as well as Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank.

The internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) has long provided cash to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for attacks on Israelis.

Prisoners are widely seen as heroes in Palestinian society, and the PA considers these payments as a form of welfare to needy families.

But Israel says they reward violence and serve as an incentive for others to carry out attacks.

About 4,700 Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel for alleged security offences, according to Israeli rights group HaMoked.

Of those, 360 are Israeli citizens or residents of east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 war and subsequently annexed.

Though Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital, its annexation of the eastern part of the city is not internationally recognised.

Most Palestinians in Jerusalem have Israeli residency rights, which allow them to work and travel freely and provide access to Israeli social services, but not full citizenship, which would allow them to vote.

On Wednesday, parliament voted 94-10 in favor of the law, which gives authorities the right to strip people of their citizenship or residency and deport them to either the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, where Israel wields overall control.

The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, is controlled by the Hamas militant group and largely closed by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

“It is inconceivable that Israeli citizens and residents who have not only betrayed the state and Israeli society, but have also agreed to receive payment from the PA as wages for committing the act of terrorism and continue to benefit from it – will continue to hold Israeli citizenship or residency status,” says an explanatory note to the bill.

Jewish politicians, including the opposition, voted in favor of the bill, while Arab representatives voted against it.

Arab politician Ahmad Tibi said the bill was racist because it only applies to Palestinians convicted of violence.

“An Arab who commits an offence is a conditional citizen,” he said. “If a Jew commits the same offence or a more serious one, they don’t even think of revoking his citizenship.”

Kadoura Fares, the head of the Palestinian prisoners’ club, a West Bank group that represents prisoners and their families, said the law was a “very dangerous decision that aims to transfer Palestinians from their cities and villages under the pretext of getting social assistance from the PA”.

HaMoked said 140 Arab citizens and 211 Jerusalem residents could be affected by the law.

It said the Jerusalem residents are especially vulnerable since they have fewer legal protections to fight the order.

The group also says that because east Jerusalem is considered occupied territory, transferring the population would violate international humanitarian law.

“It’s shameful that this law passed, and with an overwhelming majority of support from the opposition as well,” said Jessica Montell, HaMoked’s executive director.

“Revoking citizenship is an extreme measure – and revoking the residency of east Jerusalem Palestinians and deporting them would be a war crime.”

TO ZIONISTS ALL PALESTINIANS ARE TERRORISTS

Israel extends law to strip 'terror' convicts of citizenship

Law will also tackle payments from Palestinian Authority to families of prisoners or detainees

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. 

AFP
Soraya Ebrahimi
Feb 15, 2023

The Israeli parliament expanded legislation on Wednesday that will introduce a policy of stripping citizenship over “terrorism” offences, aimed at those who receive funds from the Palestinian Authority.

The bill received 94 votes in favour and 10 against in the Knesset and paves the way for Israel to expel people from the country or annexed East Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed it on Twitter as “our answer to terrorism”, while a rights group said the move was “in violation of international law”.
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A statement from parliament said politicians had approved “the revocation of citizenship or residency of a terrorist operative who receives compensation [from the Palestinian Authority] for committing an act of terrorism”.

The Palestinian Authority gives stipends to numerous families of prisoners, or detainees themselves, including those convicted of killing Israelis.

Israel says making payments to the families of attackers encourages further violence, but for some Palestinians, such payments are a key source of income.

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Adalah, an organisation that advocates Palestinians' rights in Israel, said the law “not only creates an additional avenue for the revocation of the citizenship of residency of Palestinians … under the Israeli regime, but also facilitates their expulsion”.

“The law explicitly and exclusively targets Palestinians as part of Israel's entrenchment of two separate legal systems based on Jewish supremacy,” the group charged in a statement.

The law may affect hundreds of East Jerusalem Palestinians and dozens of Israeli citizens, according to Dani Shenhar, head of the legal department at Israeli rights group HaMoked.

“The threshold is very low, so we're very worried about it, especially the effect on East Jerusalem,” he told AFP when the bill was tabled last month.

The text approved by politicians lays out a judicial procedure for denying legal status following a request by the interior minister.

Most Palestinians living in East Jerusalem hold Israeli residency permits rather than citizenship.

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The new legislation allows deportation “to the territories of the Palestinian Authority [in the occupied West Bank] or the Gaza Strip”.

Gaza, controlled by Hamas, has been under an Israeli-led blockade since 2007.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 war.

Ahmad Tibi, an Arab opposition lawmaker, denounced the law as discriminatory.

“When an Arab commits a crime, they are a conditional citizen, whereas when a Jew commits even a more serious crime, revoking their citizenship is unheard of,” he said during Wednesday's debate in parliament.

Politicians on Wednesday also approved in a preliminary vote a bill to allow the deportation of family members of those convicted of “terrorism”, in cases in which they are found to have supported the crime or known about it and failed to report it to the authorities.

Israel has previously stripped residency and citizenship, including that of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, who was deported in December.

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The Jerusalem resident had been arrested and jailed on several occasions by Israel, which revoked his residency permit citing ties the outlawed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In 2017, an Israeli court revoked an Arab citizen's nationality over an attack against Israelis.

That was the first time an amendment passed in 2008 had been used to revoke citizenship.

Also in 2017, Israel announced it was stripping 20 people of citizenship after they allegedly joined ISIS.

Human Rights Watch said Israel has stripped 15,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians of their right to residency since 1967, warning the practice may constitute a “war crime”.