A bill submitted yesterday (Sunday) to the Knesset would strip terrorists and their families of their citizenship and permanent residency status.
The legislation, submitted by Yisrael Beiteinu faction chairman Robert Ilatov with the backing of his party leader, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, was crafted in cooperation with the Zionist movement Im Tirtzu in response to the murder of 23-year-old border policewoman Hadas Malka this past Friday in Jerusalem.
According to the bill, originally proposed by the late Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem, anyone found to be directly or indirectly involved in a terror attack will forfeit his citizenship and residency permit, along with the citizenship and permits of his family.
The bill would provide family members an opportunity to prove their innocence, which if established would enable them to retain their status.
Ilatov explained that the rights afforded to Israeli citizens and residents enable them to perpetrate attacks with greater ease, and the bill would serve as a powerful deterrent to the recent increase of Israeli citizens and residents involved in acts of terror.
The bill also stipulates that those found to have been complicit in terrorist attacks will lose their socioeconomic benefits, such as welfare payments and subsidized burial expenses.
“We will no longer allow the absurd situation in which terrorists and their accomplices enjoy the rights and benefits of Israeli citizenship while working to destroy the country,” said Ilatov.
“The purpose of the bill is to send a clear message: Whoever tries to harm the State of Israel will no longer be a part of it.”
Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg called attention to “extravagant” benefits enjoyed by terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, as well as the payments transferred to the terrorists by the Palestinian Authority.
“Today there exists an extreme situation wherein terrorists know that it is more worthwhile for them to murder an Israeli than to steal his car,”said Peleg.
Peleg also noted that the “bill will limit the power of foreign agent organizations in Israel that work on behalf of foreign governments to defend terrorists and their families in court.”