Israeli Parliament passes law allowing families of “terrorists” to be expelled to the Gaza Strip

On Thursday, November 7, the Israeli Parliament adopted a law allowing the expulsion to the Gaza Strip of close relatives of individuals who have perpetrated crimes. “terrorist attacks” in the country, a text denounced by defenders of the rights of the Arab minority.

The legislation, introduced by MK Almog Cohen, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Force) party, authorizes the interior minister to expel family members from “terrorists (…) whether they knew in advance of plans for terrorist attacks, but did not do everything in their power to prevent them from being carried out”.

The Minister of the Interior will also have the power “to expel family members who express support for terrorism or publish statements praising or encouraging acts of terrorism or a terrorist organization”. These Israeli citizens could be expelled for a period of between seven and fifteen years, and permanent or temporary residents for a period of between ten and twenty years.

“Collective punishment” of Palestinians

This law, supported for years by the far right, aims, according to its promoters, to dissuade Arab citizens of Israel, living in Israel and annexed East Jerusalem, from carrying out anti-Israeli attacks. “Starting today, any father, mother, boy, girl, brother, sister or spouse who identifies with and supports a family member who has harmed citizens of Israel will be deported.”said Itamar Ben Gvir, minister of national security and leader of the Jewish Force party, in a statement.

A spokesman for Mr. Cohen told AFP that the law would apply to the family of anyone who carried out a terrorist attack, not necessarily those who have been convicted in court, and that it would would act as a rapid procedure. He did not specify how these families would be sent to Gaza, a territory besieged and ravaged by more than a year of war after the bloody attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. According to the latest report published Thursday by the health ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza, 43,469 people have died in the Palestinian territory since that date.

Adalah, the legal center for the rights of Arab minorities in Israel, denounced a “dangerous escalation in Israeli legislative repression of Palestinian rights, under the guise of the fight against terrorism”. In a press release, the organization also castigated a “collective punishment” Palestinians, believing that the law went against international law because it reinforced the “two-tier legal system” Israeli.