DaysofPal- The Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed a new controversial law Thursday that allows the deportation of Palestinian families whose relatives are resisting the Israeli occupation.
The law, which would also apply to Palestinian citizens of Israel, was approved by the Knesset by 61 votes to 41 on Thursday after passing the two necessary final plenum readings.
Although the law did not specify where families and relatives would be deported, Israeli media reported that those who were expelled would be sent to Gaza or other locations for a period of 7–15 years for citizens and 10–20 years for legal residents.
The legislation, sponsored by Hanoch Milwidsky, a politician from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, grants the interior minister the authority to deport a first-degree relative of alleged attackers.
The parents, siblings, or spouses of a resistance fighter can be sent away from Israel in case they are deemed to have “expressed support or identification” or have failed to report information about an attack against Israel.
It is probable that the law will be contested in court. According to Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former Israeli military expert on international law, the legislation is likely to be overturned if it makes it all the way to the Supreme Court because of earlier Israeli deportation cases.
The latest law reflects the Knesset’s increasingly hardline stance, as lawmakers approved it just days after another law that will allow the dismissal of Palestinian teachers in Israel who express sympathy for acts of resistance.
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