Netanyahu asks court to revoke Palestinian citizenship in Israel after terror conviction
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday asked a court to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two Palestinian men convicted of terrorism.
This effort appears to be the first implementation of a law enacted three years ago that allows the revocation of citizenship and subsequent deportation of Palestinian citizens convicted of certain crimes of violence such as terrorism and receiving financial support from the Palestinian Authority as a reward.
Netanyahu filed court papers arguing that the seriousness of the crimes, and the payments the men reportedly received from Palestinian Authority coffers, justified stripping them of their citizenship and expelling them from the Jewish State.
The prime minister has long said that this fund is benefiting violence, including attacks on people.
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Palestinian men are released from Israel’s Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
But Palestinian officials have denied it is a safety net for a wider section of the community with family members in Israeli custody. They also accused Netanyahu of focusing on the small number of beneficiaries who carried out the attack.
When the law was passed, critics argued that it allowed the Israeli legal system to treat Jewish and Palestinian people differently. Civil rights groups say supporting the deportation law at the expense of the Palestinian Authority excludes Jewish Israelis, including settlers convicted of crimes against Palestinians, from the threat of losing their citizenship, as the law targeted people of a certain ethnicity.
Netanyahu said this week the government presented the cases against the two men and that similar cases will be brought in the future.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked a court to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two Palestinian men convicted of terrorism. (YAIR SAGI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Israeli officials said Mohamad Ahmad, a resident of Jerusalem, was convicted of “terrorism and receiving funds related to terrorism.” He reportedly received a payout after being convicted in 2002 of the shooting and served 23 years before being released in 2024.
Mohammed Ahmad Hussein al-Halsi was sentenced in 2016 to 18 years in prison for stabbing old women. It is said that he also received payments while in prison.
Ahmad will be deported immediately, while al-Halsi will be deported upon his release, as people will be deported to Gaza once their sentences are completed under the 2023 law, which applies to citizens or permanent residents convicted of “committing an act involving breach of loyalty to the Government of Israel,” including terrorism.
When the law was passed, critics argued that it allowed the Israeli legal system to treat Jewish and Palestinian people differently. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)
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The director general of Israel’s legal center Adalah, Hassan Jabareen, called the move to implement the law “an act of deceptive propaganda” by Netanyahu. He said stripping citizenship violates basic principles of the law, including taking action against people who have completed prison sentences.
“The Israeli government is trying to take away from people the basis on which all rights are protected, their citizenship,” he said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
