Minister seeks to revoke terrorist's citizenship

Interior minister Gideon Sa’ar asks Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to revoke the citizenship of Muhammad Mafarji, convicted of a 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing that left 28 wounded.

Mafarji, previously a resident of the West Bank, moved to Israel and was granted Israeli citizenship after applying for it on grounds of family reunification. His wife is from Taibe.

The scene of Wednesday's bus bombing in Tel Aviv (photo credit: Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90) — The scene of the November 21 bus bombing in Tel Aviv (photo credit: Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90)

“Revoking the citizenship of convicted terrorists is a significant act of a democracy defending itself against a civilian acting to murder Israeli civilians,” says Sa’ar.

Mafarji confessed to the Shin Bet security service that he placed an explosive device on Dan bus No. 142 on November 21, 2012, during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza rocket fire. The bomb detonated near the Israeli military’s headquarters in the center of Tel Aviv.