Israeli rights group decries deportation of 2 Arab Israelis as ‘violation of international law’

By Abdel Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – An Israeli human rights group has denounced Israel’s decision to deport two Arab Israelis from occupied East Jerusalem after revoking their citizenship as “a violation of human rights and international law.”

In a statement released late Tuesday, Adalah said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “signed deportation orders against two Palestinian citizens of Israel,” marking the first implementation of the 2023 Citizenship and Residency Revocation Law “for the purpose of actual removal.”

One of the two men was released in 2024 after serving 23 years in prison for security-related offenses, while the second is currently serving an 18-year sentence following a 2016 conviction, the statement added. The latter’s citizenship is to be revoked, and he is to be deported upon his release.

Netanyahu also announced that additional deportation orders would be issued later, in a move Adalah said signals “a potential expansion of the law’s use against Palestinian citizens.”

The statement noted that the destination of deported Arab Israelis was not specified, but the law allows for removal to areas under Palestinian Authority control or to the Gaza Strip.

Adalah said Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that safeguards must be in place to protect individuals facing citizenship revocation, including granting permanent residency if revocation would render a person stateless.

However, the group warned that the 2023 law was enacted to circumvent that ruling. It mandates deportation of Palestinians to areas under Palestinian Authority control if they received financial support during imprisonment, “a punitive criterion targeting Palestinians exclusively and potentially leading to statelessness.”

The legal center reiterated its opposition to the law throughout the legislative process, stressing that “citizenship is a fundamental human right and a prerequisite for exercising civil and political rights.”

Adalah said arbitrary deprivation of nationality, especially when it results in statelessness or forced deportation, violates Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a nationality, and Article 8 of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

It described the 2023 law as “unconstitutional, punitive and discriminatory,” saying the deportation orders effectively enable the exile of Palestinian citizens from their homeland.

“These unprecedented steps contradict the absolute prohibition on statelessness and undermine the essential protections that citizenship is meant to provide,” the statement said.

According to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, the two Arab Israelis would be deported to the Gaza Strip, a first-of-its-kind move.

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes charges in Gaza, claimed the two men had carried out stabbing and shooting attacks against Israelis. He pledged to target more Palestinians inside the territories occupied in 1948, saying, “Many more are on the way.”

The law, passed in February 2023, allows the interior minister to revoke citizenship or residency from individuals convicted of “terrorism” or “treason” who receive financial stipends from the Palestinian Authority, with the possibility of deportation.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the two targeted Arab Israelis are Mahmoud Ahmad from Kafr Aqab, north of occupied East Jerusalem, who was sentenced in 2001 to 23 years in prison and released in 2024, and Mohammed Ahmad Hussein Halseh from Jabal al-Mukabber in East Jerusalem.

Halseh was convicted in 2016 at age 16 in a stabbing case and sentenced to 18 years in prison and is expected to be deported upon his release.

Arab Israelis make up more than 20 percent of Israel’s population of over 10 million, and many say they face discrimination and marginalization under successive Israeli governments.

Israel was established in 1948 on lands where armed Zionist gangs displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It later occupied the remaining Palestinian territories and has refused to withdraw or allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul