Israel: New Draft Law Seeks to Deport Arab-Israeli 'Terrorists' to Gaza Strip

A new law proposed by an Israeli politician is to allow the state to remove the citizenship and residency of those deemed a "terrorist" along with their families and deport them to the Gaza Strip.

The ruling Likud party's Yariv Levin, a member of the Israeli Knesset, drafted the bill which will see the citizenship revoked of person convicted of terror activities such as the throwing of a Molotov cocktail.

The alleged "terrorists" would be expelled to Gaza after they had finished their prison sentence, while the bodies of those killed after committing terror attacks would not be returned to the families for a funeral.

Israeli authorities would bury the bodies at unknown locations and withhold access to the graves from the families.

If family members of accused terrorists show support for an attack, they could also see their citizenship revoked and be deported to Gaza. The residence of a terrorist's family would also be demolished within 24 hours of an attack.

"I hope this moves quickly, and we don't have to wait until the next [attack]," Levin told the Times of Israel.

Besides crimes considered as "terror activity", stone throwers and "inciters" could face arrest and imprisonment after which they would lose any potential welfare benefits and would not be allowed to drive for 10 years.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel [ACRI] criticised the draft law as "collective punishment".

"The absurd proposals raised by MK Levin involve serious human rights violations and acts of collective punishment – which bear no relation to an actual war on terror," said ACRI lawyer Lila Margalit.

In response to a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that he would "instruct the interior minister to evaluate revoking the citizenship of those who call for the destruction of the State of Israel."