‘Changing the Equation’

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Israeli lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would strip Israeli citizenship or residency from individuals convicted of terrorism and who receive financial support for violent acts from the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Times of Israel reported.

The bill – introduced by the conservative ruling coalition – received cross-parliamentary support and followed a deadly terror attack outside of a Jerusalem synagogue last month.

The draft law applies to both Israeli citizens and permanent residents imprisoned after being convicted of terrorism. It says that anyone who commits an act of terror or any other offense that “seriously harms the State of Israel” and then accepts a reward for it from the PA is “testifying that he renounces his status as a citizen or resident.”

Those whose citizenship gets revoked would be transferred to PA territory in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip at the end of their prison sentence, on the assumption that anyone being paid by the PA is entitled to status in its territory.

So far, the bill has passed its first reading and has moved on to other parliamentary committees for further discussion.

Lawmakers who sponsored the legislation said it would “change the equation.” Supporters say it would help prevent attacks in the future.

But some opposition legislators and Arab advocate groups denounced the bill as “racist from its roots,” noting that it creates “two separate legal tracks based on racial identity, as the state designed this measure to be used exclusively against Palestinians.”

Some point to a practice by the PA they say has been incentivizing terror by paying allowances to people convicted in Israel of carrying out terror attacks, and to the families of those killed while carrying out such acts.

Palestinian officials have defended the practice as a form of social welfare to aid victims of Israel’s military justice system in the West Bank.

Last year, a PA official told the Times of Israel that the authority may have paid around $181 million in stipends to Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for security offenses and their families in 2020.

Israel’s new government, widely regarded as the most right-wing in its history, has pledged to crack down on Palestinian terrorism and isolate the PA, which many of its lawmakers perceive as a terror-inciting organization.