According to the law, a family member may be deported if it is found he knew in advance of the terrorist’s plans and did not take action to prevent them.
By United with Israel
The Knesset Plenum on Thursday voted to approve in second and third a bill that allows for the deportation of a terrorist’s family members.
The bill, which included MKs Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud), Eliyahu Revivo (Likud), and Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) as sponsors, passed with 61 MKs for, 41 against.
According to the Knesset, the bill “proposed to stipulate that the Minister of Interior will be entitled to instruct, after holding a hearing, the deportation of a family member of a terrorist, if he or she knew in advance about their family member’s plan to commit an act of terrorism and did not make all necessary efforts to prevent it from being committed.”
“Alternatively, the Minister of Interior will be entitled to instruct the deportation of the family member in question if he or she expressed support or identification with the act of terrorism, or published statements of praise, sympathy or encouragement for the act of terrorism or for a terrorist organization.”
“The validity of the deportation order for an Israeli citizen will be no less than seven years and no more than 15 years. For a permanent or temporary resident, it will be no less than ten years and no more than 20 years.”
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “In recent years, and particularly after the start of the Swords of Iron war, which broke out in the wake of the terrorist offensive launched on October 7, 2023, the number of cases has increased in which citizens and holders of a permanent residence license in Israel have incited to terrorism, whether it is by publishing direct calls to commit acts of terrorism or by publishing statements of praise, sympathy or encouragement for such acts, support for them or identification with them.”
The notes also say, “From various studies conducted over the years, both by the National Security Council and by the IDF related to dozens of terrorists with Israeli citizenship, it emerged that the terrorists’ only concern was what would happen to their families after the attack. There is no doubt that many terrorists will refrain from carrying out an attack, as long as they know that their families will be punished for it.”