‘Cairo to strip thousands of Palestinians of citizenship’

Egyptian security has begun investigating alleged Hamas supporters living in the country, report says

Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

Egyptians wave Palestinian flags during Friday prayers at an anti-Israel rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square, May 13, 2011 (photo credit: AP/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptians wave Palestinian flags during Friday prayers at an anti-Israel rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square, May 13, 2011 (photo credit: AP/Khalil Hamra)

Two days after a Cairo court banned Hamas’s activities in Egypt, the country’s security establishment intends to revoke the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians obtained during the one-year term of deposed Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi, an Egyptian daily reported on Thursday.

Security sources told Al-Youm A-Sabi’ that their agencies are seeking information on 13,757 Palestinians who received Egyptian citizenship from the Muslim Brotherhood government before its July 2013 ouster in a military-backed revolution. The sources said that most of the Palestinians in question are affiliated with Hamas.

Mainstream Egyptian media remains staunchly opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was branded a terrorist organization by the country’s new government in December. Deposed president Mohammed Morsi now faces charges of colluding with Hamas in Gaza to destabilize Egyptian national security.

The veracity of Al-Youm A-Sabi’s claims could not be independently confirmed.

According to the daily, Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab has the right to revoke citizenship from those believed to pose a threat to the country’s national security with no need for court approval.

Palestinian travelers at the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt, May 27 (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90)
Palestinian travelers at the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt, May 27 (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90)

Al-Youm Al-Sabi’ reported that a number of Palestinians who were granted Egyptian citizenship by Morsi “ungratefully” participated in terror attacks and criminal activities inside Egypt.

Egypt kept the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt closed on Thursday for the eighth consecutive day, while Israel allowed 220 trucks to enter the Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, Al-Quds daily reported. Egypt also barred the entry into Gaza of Irish Nobel Prize laureate Mairead Maguire as part of a delegation of some 80 women.

Meanwhile, Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau currently residing in Cairo, condemned the Egyptian decision to ban Hamas activities in the country while denying that any such activities existed.

“This decision is political par excellence, issued through an Egyptian court to foster more animosity against the Palestinian resistance for political ends,” Abu Marzouk wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday.

“Hamas has no headquarters or activities in Egypt to begin with,” he added. “This ruling shows that the Egyptian regime has forgone Egypt’s role in supporting the Palestinian cause …. it is a blatant attack on the Palestinian resistance in the service of the Zionist occupation.”

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