MKs give initial okay to evicting terror suspects’ families from their homes
Legislation that would forcibly relocate relatives of Palestinian attackers to other areas of West Bank passes preliminary reading, despite opposition from attorney general
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Lawmakers gave initial approval Wednesday to controversial legislation that would allow Israel to forcibly relocate the families of Palestinian terrorists from their homes to other areas of the West Bank.
The bill was approved in its preliminary reading by a majority of 61 to 47 following a heated debate and despite vehement opposition from Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
According to the proposed legislation by Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, within a week of an attack or attempted attack, the IDF’s Central Command will be permitted to expel the relatives of suspected Palestinian assailants from their hometowns to other parts of the West Bank.
The explanatory text accompanying the bill touts Israel’s deterrence as “the cornerstone of Israeli security and a way to save lives and uphold law and order.”
On Monday, Mandelblit said it was unclear whether the bill would provide such a deterrent and warned it could infringe human rights and spark international condemnation of Israel.
Presenting the bill to the plenary, Yogev said that he disagreed with the reservations from Mandelblit and security officials.
“I have examined this with experts and they argue that these tools are effective and help and can prevent the next murder,” he said.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, speaking on behalf of the government, said the bill would provide the first real deterrent to potential terrorists.
“Today the families of the terrorists have only an incentive system and there is no deterrent against it,” Levin said.
A number of other measures used by Israel as deterrent measures, such as home demolitions, closing off hometowns of attackers, and revoking work permits, have been criticized as a form of collective punishment. Israel says the measures are necessary as disincentives to terrorism.
Opposition members, however, said the proposal does not work as a deterrent and was being pushed to dodge blame for a series of recent terror attacks.
“Insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results,” Meretz party chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said. “This government has failed, its security doctrine has collapsed, and yet all it has to offer us is another destructive law from the same racist and extreme school of collective punishment. This law is neither right nor wise. It’s time for sanity. ”
Joint (Arab) List MK Jamal Zahalka, one of several opposition lawmakers removed from the plenary for disrupting the pre-vote debate, called the proposal “vindictive, unfair, unjust, and aimed at harming innocents.”
On Sunday the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted to grant coalition support for the bill, meaning that coalition members would be obliged to support it in all readings in the Knesset.
In a statement released following press queries on whether Mandelblit had advised ministers not to vote to advance the bill, the attorney general’s office said the measures in the proposal “severely infringe upon the liberty and property of the family members who are slated for deportation, due to the act of another family member and without proof that [the family] also poses a danger.”
According to Mandelblit, the current law allows for Israel to “assign a place of residence” to Palestinians citizens “only if there is a specific threat from that person… and after examining the proportionality” of expelling them from their home.
“There is therefore a constitutional impediment to advancing the proposed legislation,” his statement said.
“The proposal also raises significant challenges on the international level,” it added, referring to potential blowback from passing the bill.
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett had called last week for the bill to be advanced in the wake of a spate of terror attacks that killed two IDF soldiers and a baby born prematurely after his mother was shot, and injured nine other Israelis.
Bennett had tried to bring the same expulsion legislation to a committee vote at the beginning of November but it was put off.
“The Palestinian terrorist must understand that violence doesn’t pay and the State of Israel will settle the score,” he said at the time. “Deporting the families to another area will improve deterrence and send the message to the Palestinian public: There is zero tolerance for terrorism.”
The proposed legislation comes after years in which the government sought to advance a bill to expel terrorists’ families to the Gaza Strip. Supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the proposal in 2016 received wide support within the coalition, including from Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon, as well as from the opposition’s Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid.
The new bill now require three additional plenary readings before passing into law.
