Interior minister orders 3 Palestinians to be deported for alleged terror support
Moshe Arbel says the three East Jerusalem residents have all expressed backing for terrorism and have family members who carried out attacks
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel announced Wednesday that he intends to deport three East Jerusalem Palestinians who are family members of terrorists and have allegedly expressed support for terrorism.
“I have decided to exercise my authority under the law and act to deport three terror supporters, who are family members of terrorists and chose to side with the enemy in time of war and support the harm to Israeli citizens,” Arbel told the Israel Hayom daily.
“Anyone who incites, praises, and supports terror has no place among us. I will continue to act decisively against anyone who threatens Israeli citizens,” he added.
In November 2024, the Knesset passed a law permitting the deportation of family members of terrorists and the incarceration of terror convicts under the age of 14.
The controversial law gives the interior minister the power to expel a first-degree relative of someone who carried out an attack if they had advance knowledge, and either failed to report the matter to the police or “expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization.”
The three Palestinians who Arbel intends to deport are East Jerusalem residents Muhammad Abu Halwa, Tansim Odeh, and Zina Barber, none of whom are Israeli citizens.
According to Arbel’s announcement, Abu Halwa is affiliated with Hamas and was indicted last August for incitement and identifying with the terror organization. His brother carried out a stabbing attack in October 2023 against a Border Police officer in East Jerusalem.
Arbel said Odeh had expressed support for terrorism several different times the past three years, and that her father was behind a bombing in October 2022 that injured multiple soldiers.
The minister said Zina Barber was to be deported for having”directly called for terrorism, provided services to a terrorist organization, expressed identification with a terrorist organization, and incited terrorism.”
“Her father is a convicted terrorist as a member of a terrorist cell who drove a car bomb in the early 2000s in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for this,” he added.
