Israel approves bill for deportation of Palestinians accused of ‘terrorism’

The Israeli Knesset has approved legislation that permits the government to deport family members of Palestinians accused of “terrorism” to the Gaza Strip or other locations, including Arab citizens of Israel. The bill passed its final two readings yesterday, with 61 votes in favour and 41 against.

Sponsored by Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of parliament from the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the law grants the interior minister authority to deport first-degree relatives, including parents, siblings or spouses of alleged attackers if they are found to have “expressed support” or failed to report information related to “terrorism”.

“Deportation outside Israel and the territories occupied in 1967 shall be for a period of seven years if the perpetrator of the attack is a citizen of Israel and for ten years if he is a resident of the territories occupied in 1967,” says the bill.

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According to AP News, the legislation is expected to face legal challenges. Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and former international law advisor for the Israeli military, noted that if the law reaches Israel’s Supreme Court, it will likely be overturned, given prior rulings on deportation cases. “The bottom line is this is completely non-constitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” said Shamir-Borer.

Israel has occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms area. It annexed the entire city of Jerusalem in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community. The Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions. In July this year, the International Court of Justice reiterated that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is unlawful, and said that it must end without delay. The UK government acknowledged this week that it accepts this ICJ ruling.

Palestinian citizens of Israel – those who remained during the Nakba and their descendants, the so-called “Arab Israelis” – make up 20 per cent of the country’s population. They face systematic discrimination and are treated as second-class citizens when compared with their fellow citizens who are Jews. Major human rights groups B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said that Israel has passed the threshold for qualification as an apartheid state, wherein Palestinians suffer racial discrimination in education, work and health care. Apartheid is akin to a crime against humanity.

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