Knesset law to allow deportation of Palestinian attackers’ families

Israel’s parliament has passed a law that would allow it to deport family members of Palestinian attackers, including the country’s own citizens, to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip or other locations.
The law, championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies, passed with a 61-41 vote on Thursday. However, legal experts said any attempt to implement the legislation would likely lead to it being struck down by Israeli courts.
The law would apply to Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of annexed East Jerusalem who knew about their family members’ attacks beforehand or who “express support or identification with the act of terrorism”.
They would be deported, either to the Gaza Strip or another location, for seven to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced.
It was unclear if the law would apply in the disputed West Bank, where Israel already has a longstanding policy of demolishing family homes of attackers, which critics decry as collective punishment. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.
Oded Feller, a legal adviser to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, dismissed the law as “populist nonsense”. He said it was unlikely to be applied, because there is no legal way for the Interior Ministry to send an Israeli citizen to another country or to Gaza.
Eran Shamir-Borer, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, said the law was likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court. He said if a resident of East Jerusalem were deported under the law, it could be seen by many in the international community as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, because it views the area as occupied territory, although Israel does not.
The deportation of an Israeli citizen could be seen not only as a violation of their constitutional rights under Israeli law, but also as a breach of their human rights under international law, he said.
The law could also be seen as a form of collective punishment and as discriminatory, because it appears to only apply to Arab citizens and residents, and not to family members of Jews convicted under terrorism laws. “The bottom line is this is completely non-constitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” Dr Shamir-Borer said.
Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler leader himself convicted of terrorism crimes as a political activist years ago, praised the new law, noting that a member of his Jewish Power party was among the sponsors. “Jewish Power is making history!” he wrote on X.
Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20 per cent of the population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination.
A second law passed on Thursday allows children between the ages of 12 and 14 to be sentenced to prison for murder or attempted murder under terrorism laws, though they must be held in a secure facility before being transferred to prison at age 14.
Previously, minors of those ages were not allowed to be sentenced to prison, according to Adalah, a legal advocacy group. It claimed the law was motivated by “revenge” and said it would affect Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of East Jerusalem.
Palestinians in the West Bank can already be sentenced from age 12 under Israeli military laws in the territory, Adalah said.