MIDDLE EAST: Israeli parliament approves law revoking citizenship of those convicted of treason

Record ID: 791337

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israeli parliament approves law revoking citizenship of those convicted of treason
  • Date: 30th March 2011
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MARCH 29, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMENDMENT INITIATOR LAWMAKER DAVID ROTEM, FROM THE "YISRAEL BEITEINU" FACTION, SPEAKING WITH REPORTER IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMENDMENT INITIATOR LAWMAKER DAVID ROTEM, FROM THE "YISRAEL BEITEINU" FACTION, SAYING: "The law is talking about anyone who is not loyal to the state that he is a citizen, will lose his citizenship, and this is exactly according to the convention of reduction of statelessness. Because somebody who is acting against the state that he is a citizen can not stay as a citizen." VARIOUS OF ISRAEL ARAB lAWMAKER AHMAD TIBI, SITTING IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ISRAEL ARAB MK AHMAD TIBI, RA'AM TA'AL FACTION, SAYING: "Racism is now a central movement in Israel. For that reason some of the racists are now foreign ministers, deputy prime ministers and interior ministers. Therefore (almost) every week there is a racist law against the Arab citizens (inside Israel), once they try to prevent us by law from commemorating Al Nakba (Arabic word for catastrophe, referring to Israel's founding in 1948), then prevent us from living in villages and national towns and now they are giving the court the right to revoke the citizenship from the Arab citizens." TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 28, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HAGAI EL-AD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR THE ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL, READING BILL TEXT (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAGAI EL-AD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR THE ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL, SAYING: "Revocation of citizenship is not something the democratic countries do, as the U.S. supreme court has ruled over 50 years ago, citizenship is not a license to be revoked as a result of bad behaviour. If people are found guilty in court, then they will go to jail as they probably should for committing such extreme offences, but that has nothing to do with revocation of citizenship." MORE OF EL-AD (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAGAI EL-AD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR THE ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL, SAYING: "We can not address this legislation without thinking about the context, the wider context, in which the Knesset is passing law after law which basically question the citizenship of Arab citizens of the state of Israel." JAFFA, ISRAEL (MARCH 29, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOSQUE MINARET AND ISRAELI FLAG IN THE MIXED JEWISH ARAB CITY OF JAFFA VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI-ARAB JAFFA RESIDENT SAMI SAYING: "Citizenship cannot be revoked from a person, you live here, you were born here, you exist here, Jewish or Arab. You can not revoke someone's citizenship, it's anyone's right to express their opinion." VARIOUS OF MAN IN JAFFA MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI-ARAB JAFFA RESIDENT ISSA SAYING: "If this applies to all the citizens of Israel, Arabs and Jews as one as citizens of Israel, then it makes sense. Anyone who hurts the state and breaks the law, should also be kicked out from the state." WOMEN IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC736OWSHSH7IAKXJXD7YJE796
  • Story Text: Israel passed a law on Monday (March 28) that eases the process of revoking citizenship, a step denounced as mainly threatening members of its Arab minority.
    The amendment to the so-called "Citizenship Law" was the latest of a list of parliamentary measures taken this past month which civil rights activists denounce as undemocratic but Israeli hawks see as essential to the nation's defence.
    The amendment, which passed by a vote of 37 to 11 after a stormy debate, empowers Israeli judges to deny citizenship privileges to anyone convicted of espionage or committing violence with nationalistic motives.
    An official explanatory text said that the law was intended to "expand the possibility of denying citizenship and empowers the court that convicts someone of crimes of acts of terror," espionage or treason to be stripped of citizenship.
    The author of the law, Knesset Member David Rotem from the rightist "Yisrael Beiteinu" faction believes that a person who acts against his own country cannot remain its citizen.
    "The law is talking about anyone who is not loyal to the state that he is a citizen, will lose his citizenship, and this is exactly according to the convention of reduction of statelessness. Because somebody who is acting against the state that he is a citizen can not stay as a citizen," Rotem said on Tuesday (March 29).
    Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, said the law was racist.
    "Racism is now a central movement in Israel. For that's reason some of the racists are now foreign minister, deputy prime minister and interior minister. Therefore (almost) every week there is a racist law against the Arab citizens (inside Israel), once they try to prevent us by law from commemorating Al Nakba (Arabic word for catastrophe, referring to Israel's founding in 1948), then prevent us from living in villages and national towns and now they are giving the court the right to revoke the citizenship from the Arab citizens," Tibi said.
    Israel's Association for Civil Rights condemned the bill.
    "Revocation of citizenship is not something the democratic countries do, as the U.S. supreme court has ruled over 50 years ago, citizenship is not a license to be revoked as a result of bad behaviour. If people are found guilty in court, then they will go to jail as they probably should for committing such extreme offences, but that has nothing to do with revocation of citizenship," said Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director of the Israeli Association for Civil Rights.
    "We can not address this legislation without thinking about the context, the wider context, in which the Knesset is passing law after law which basically question the citizenship of Arab citizens of the state of Israel," he added.
    Israeli Arabs, who make up about a fifth of Israel's mostly Jewish population, are descendants of Palestinians who remained in what is now Israel when hundreds of thousands were driven away or fled in a 1948 war over Israel's establishment.
    Unlike Palestinians living in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, Israeli Arabs are fully enfranchised, though many complain of discrimination. A small number of them have been charged with crimes linked to Palestinian militancy.
    In the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Jaffa, resident voiced mixed opinions over the amendment.
    "Citizenship can not be revoked from a person, you live here, you were born here, you exist here, Jewish or Arab. You can not revoke someone's citizenship, it's anyone's right to express their opinion," Sami, and Arab resident, said.
    Another Arab resident supported the move, adding it should apply both to Jews and Arabs.
    "If this applies to all the citizens of Israel, Arabs and Jews as one as citizens of Israel, then it makes sense. Anyone who hurts the state and breaks the law, should also be kicked out from the state," Issa said.
    Israel's parliament has passed and debated a list of measures denounced as undemocratic and anti-Arab this month.
    A law passed a week ago would penalise those engaging in public protest of Israel's founding as a "nakba," the Arabic word for catastrophe.
    Yet another permits small communities to exclude anyone seen as unsuitable from their midst, including Arabs who constitute a majority in some of the regions where the law applies.
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