The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahusigned a decree this Tuesday to revoke the citizenship and deport two Israeli Palestinians accused of violent acts. The measure, which the president has confirmed in a statement, represents the first application of a law passed in 2023 to punish Palestinians with an Israeli passport, or with a permanent residence permit in East Jerusalem, sentenced for terrorist acts.
In a note published as the prime minister flies to the United States, where on Wednesday will meet Donald Trump To defend his interests in the fight with Iran, Netanyahu has assured that the decree will strip the citizenship of two “terrorists” who carried out attacks “with stabbings and shooting against Israeli civilians.” Although there is no official announcement in this regard, the Israeli newspaper Wallaconsidered close to Netanyahu, indicates that the deportees will be sent to the Gaza Strip.
One of the first affected by the legislation, which human rights groups point out as contrary to international law, is Mahmoud Ahmed. According to the Israeli media Yedioth Ahronotthe man was released in 2024 after receiving a 23-year prison sentence for “several shootings against Israeli soldiers and civilians.” The other is Muhammad Ahmad Hussein al-Halasi, sentenced to 18 years in prison after stabbing two women in Jerusalem in 2016. In this case, he is expected to be deported after serving his sentence, as provided for by legislation that prohibits exiles from returning to Israel.
Netanyahu has anticipated in his statement that “many more cases like these are on the way.” His fellow student and one of the promoters of the law, Ofir Katz, delved this Tuesday into the same idea – the deportation of “many more terrorists is in process” – that he already expressed months ago, when he announced that the procedures had begun to apply the law to hundreds of citizens.
The legislation, an amendment to the Israeli Citizenship Law of 1952 that the Israeli Parliament approved with the support of 94 of 120 deputies, weighs on those who meet three requirements. Those affected must be convicted of violent acts and have been sentenced to prison time. It must also be proven that they have received stipends from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), something that the Israeli authorities present as a way to “reward atrocious acts,” as Netanyahu wrote this Monday.
This institution, which governs in a limited way some parts of the West Bank, provides financial aid to prisoners held in Israeli prisons, sometimes with blood crimes after committing attacks with political background. Often, stupendous are transferred to family members or other representatives, as well as relatives of deceased attackers. The West Bank, one of the three Palestinian territories occupied by Israel along with the Strip and East Jerusalem, is one of the places with the highest incarceration rates on the planet.
The measure was a demand from the most radical right that finally pushed forward the current Israeli government, the most right-wing in Israel’s seven decades of history, formed in 2022 when Netanyahu allied himself with the extreme right to remain in power. After approval, in February 2023, the Israeli human rights group Adalah denounced that the amendment “further undermines the precarious status of Palestinians under the Israeli regime,” and pointed to the leaders of the Jewish State for promoting a measure “exclusively directed toward Palestinians” that “establishes two different legal systems based on Jewish supremacy.” An estimated one-fifth of Israel’s ten million people are Arabs.
In addition to Gaza, the other place that the law contemplates to deport those affected are the West Bank territories under the control of the ANP, although the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a series of measures on Sunday that extend Israeli jurisdiction over that area, advancing its annexation in fact.
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