Israel passes law allowing deportation of entire Palestinian families

Israel passes law allowing deportation of entire Palestinian families

The Israeli Knesset approved earlier onThursday, in the second and third readings, a bill to deport the families of Arab attackers to Gaza or to another deportation destination determined “according to the circumstances.”

According to the bill, “the Israeli Minister of Interior can deport the family of the perpetrator of an attack if it is proven that they had prior knowledge of the operation and did not make all necessary efforts to prevent it.”

The bill stipulates that “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.”

The bill specifically targets Palestinians inside the 1948 territories and Jerusalemites, and grants the occupation police the powers to implement the deportation, including the right to enter any place and use the necessary force to deport any person.

On October 29, the Israeli Knesset Committee approved the laws to deport the families of “operation perpetrators” and to prohibit the establishment of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem, and referred them to the General Assembly in preparation for voting on them in the second and third readings.

The law is part of a series of controversial legislation recently passed by the Knesset, which is controlled by right-wing parties, the latest of which was a ban on the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in areas that Israel claims are “within its sovereignty.”