“Confronting our enemies is on many fronts, of deterrence, prevention, education, intelligence, resolute warfare, and strict penalties and enforcement,” bill reads.
By United with Israel
The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday deliberated the passage of a bill that seeks to bar Arabs from Gaza, Judea and Samaria convicted of terrorism, as well as their family members, from receiving Israeli residence permits.
In the bill, sponsored of by Likud MK Amit Halevi, it is proposed to establish a prohibition on granting a stay permit or a license for residence in Israel to a resident of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, or to such a resident’s family member—if the person has been convicted of an act of terrorism or is a terrorist operative, in addition to a prohibition on renewing such a permit or license.
It is further proposed to impose stricter penalties for an illegal stay in Israel, and to stipulate that the maximum penalty for the offense will be up to three years instead of one year’s imprisonment, and that the minimum penalty will be at least one quarter of the maximum penalty set for the offense.
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “The mass slaughter that was committed on October 7, 2023 must serve as a clear and sharp warning sign to all those engaged in the task of protecting the security of the state and its citizens. If the State of Israel practiced a ‘forgiving’ and ‘accepting’ attitude towards illegal aliens who are residents of Judea and Samaria and Gaza until October 7, then afterwards, its obligation to the security of its citizens requires it to reexamine the standards on this issue and other issues pertaining to terrorist infrastructures.”
“[The task of] confronting our enemies is on many fronts, of deterrence, prevention, education, intelligence, resolute warfare, and strict penalties and enforcement.”
“The implementation of this law’s clauses may save many lives in the future. Unfortunately, these instructions were written with a lot of blood, since October 7 and long before it. Therefore, this bill will prevent a person who has been convicted of terror and who is not a resident or citizen of Israel, from returning to walk the streets of Israel – said person and his family members. This, along with stricter penalties for illegal aliens, is a crucial and life-saving measure.”
Merav Hajaj, mother of Shir Hajaj, who was murdered in a terror attack in Jerusalem in 2017 along with three other soldiers, said, “If the terrorists would have known that his children would remain without food, that the stay permits of all his family members who came here as visitors would be revoked, maybe he would have thought twice and not run over four of our children, including my Shir.”
“Dozens of terrorists came from the village of Jabel Mukaber. Imagine what would happen in the village if the stay permits of 20 people would be revoked; what a deterring effect it would have on the next [would-be] terrorist. This law must be passed quickly, for the purpose of deterrence, and also to get justice for my daughter Shiri,” the mother said.
According to statistics presented by the National Security Ministry, in 2022, 29% of terror attacks were committed by illegal aliens; in 2021 – 26%; in 2020 – 42%; in 2019 – 46%; in 2018 – 50%, and in 2017 – 36%.