Israel passes law to deport relatives of attackers, including citizens

The Israeli parliament has passed a law allowing the government to deport the family members of people convicted of terrorism offences, including Israeli citizens.

The controversial legislation, proposed by a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, applies to first-degree relatives, meaning the parents, siblings or children of those found guilty of committing or supporting terrorism.

Israeli human rights organisations say the law is unconstitutional.

Some opposition members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, suggested it is targeted only at Palestinian citizens of Israel, sometimes called Israeli Arabs.

The law allows for the deportation of the family members of those who had advance knowledge and either failed to report the matter to the police or “expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism”.

Relatives of those who published “praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organisation” could also be deported.

Relatives would be deported by order of the interior minister. Some members of the Knesset suggested during the debate on the bill that it would not be used against Jewish Israeli citizens, the Times of Israel website reported.

“Yigal Amir’s family will not be deported anywhere,” said opposition member of parliament Merav Michaeli, referring to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, a Jewish extremist.

Launching a similar attack, Mickey Levy asked “whether you will deport Ben Gvir’s family,” a reference to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s conviction in his youth for incitement to violence and supporting a terror group.

Dr Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst, told the BBC there was “no question” the law was intended to apply to Arabs and Palestinians.

“It is very unlikely that a Jewish citizen of Israel would ever be deported under this law,” Dr Scheindlin said.

“This is clear from certain provisions in the law itself but also important elements which will determine how the law is applied, including that in normal Israeli parlance, the term ‘terror’ is almost never applied to Jewish acts of violence against Palestinian civilians.”

About 20% of the country’s population are Palestinian citizens of Israel.

A truck which hit a bus stop in central Israel last month was driven by a man identified by authorities as a Palestinian citizen of Israel.

Many Israeli Arabs have also been convicted for posting support or sympathy for Hamas on social media since 7 October last year.

Both the justice ministry and the attorney general’s office have raised concerns about how the legislation, which will likely be challenged in court, can be enforced.

Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, said that if the legislation reaches the Supreme Court, it would likely to be struck down based on previous Israeli cases regarding deportation.

“The bottom line is this is completely non-constitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” Mr Shamir-Borer told the Associated Press news agency.

Those deported will be sent to Gaza or to “another destination determined according to the circumstances”.

Other than the military, ordinary Israeli citizens are not legally allowed to enter Gaza.

About 100 Israelis are thought to be being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, including around 60 who are thought to still be alive.

Israeli citizens would retain their citizenship even after being expelled from the country. They would not be allowed to return for between seven and 15 years.

Permanent residents could be deported for between 10 and 20 years.

The majority of the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem hold permanent Israeli residency.

In addition, a five-year temporary order was approved allowing for prison sentences for children under the age of 14 convicted of murder as part of an act of terrorism or as part of the activities of a terrorist organisation.