Knesset passes law prohibiting entry into Israel for October 7, Holocaust deniers
Legislation also bans issuing entry permits to anybody who publicly supports international prosecution of Israeli citizens over their activities in the security services
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A law prohibiting the entry into Israel of people who deny the Holocaust or atrocities committed by Hamas during its attack on October 7, 2023, passed its third and final reading in the Knesset plenum 12-0 on Wednesday evening.
The legislation, sponsored by New Hope MK Mishel Buskila, extends an existing entry ban on those advocating boycotts against Israel, applying it to those denying the Holocaust and the October 7 massacre, as well as those advocating for the prosecution of Israelis for actions taken during their service in the IDF or other security services.
The law also applies to people working for organizations that make such statements.
“The State of Israel, like any other country in the world, must defend itself, its citizens, soldiers, and national identity,” Buskila stated on Wednesday.
“Many countries in the world prohibit the entry of hostile entities who harm their security forces. Israel is a democratic country, but it is not naive. Those who support Israel will be respectfully welcomed. Those who attempt to undermine our very existence, deny the horrors of the past, or harm our soldiers and citizens, have no place among us.”
On October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, while committing many acts of brutality and sexual assault.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant in November, charging the pair with crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during Israel’s post-October 7 war against Hamas.
In January, an IDF soldier who survived Hamas’s attack at the Nova music festival on October 7 was forced to flee Brazil to escape a war crimes investigation. On Tuesday, two IDF conscripts vacationing in Amsterdam were rushed back to Israel after pro-Palestinian groups got wind of their trip and were mobilizing to have arrest warrants issued for the pair.
Buskila’s bill passed its third reading just under a month after the Knesset passed a law criminalizing the denial, minimization or celebration of Hamas’s October 7 attack.
That legislation, sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, was modeled after a 1986 law prohibiting Holocaust denial. “Anyone who says or writes things denying the October 7 massacre with the intention of defending the terrorist organization Hamas and its partners, expressing sympathy for them, or identifying with them, will be sentenced to five years in jail,” it states.
Statements made “in good faith or for a legitimate purpose,” such as during research or to provide information as part of a legal proceeding, are not considered criminal activity under the law.
The law raised questions regarding both free speech and its potential impact on October 7-related criminal cases.
Army Radio reported in early 2024 that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had come out against that legislation because trials brought under the proposed law could complicate the prosecution and trials of Hamas members by requiring the “disclosure of evidence that will disrupt” the ongoing legal process.
While the proposal came only months after the October 7 attack, Holocaust memory laws around the world were only passed years after the European genocide when “a clear historical determination of the crimes had already been created,” Baharav-Miara wrote at the time.
The massacre denial law raised concerns among some human rights advocates over its potential impact on free speech, especially given the large number of police investigations and indictments against Arab Israeli citizens on charges of incitement and identifying with terrorist groups following the beginning of the war in Gaza.
