JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he had ordered two Palestinian citizens of Israel convicted on terror charges to be stripped of their citizenship and deported to areas under Palestinian control.
It is the first time such measures are being taken under a 2023 law, which allows for the revocation of Israeli citizenship or residence permits from perpetrators of anti-Israeli attacks whose families subsequently received compensation from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
“This morning I signed the revocation of citizenship and deportation of two Israeli terrorists who carried out stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and were rewarded for their heinous acts by the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
“I thank Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz for leading the law that will expel them from the State of Israel, with many more like them to follow,” it added.
The statement was released as Netanyahu was heading to Washington where he will meet US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Netanyahu, who heads one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history, did not identify the two men, but Israeli media named them as Mohammed Hamad Al-Salhi and Mohammed Halasah.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group confirmed their names to AFP and said they hailed from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Salhi was released from prison in 2024 after 23 years behind bars and holds Israeli citizenship, the Club said.
It also said that Halasah holds an east Jerusalem residency card — an ID document issued to Palestinians by the Israeli authorities — which does not confer Israeli citizenship.
A relative contacted by AFP that Halasah had previously held Israeli citizenship but was stripped of it months ago.
The same source said said Halasah was sentenced to 18 years in prison while he was still a minor and has served about half of his sentence.
Israeli media reported that Salhi’s deportation could be carried out soon, while Halasah’s would only be applied upon his release from prison at the end of his sentence.
Under the law, such deportees will be expelled to areas controlled to the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank or to the Gaza Strip.
Adalah, an Israeli group defending the rights of the Arab minority, said at the time the law was passed that it “explicitly and exclusively targets Palestinians as part of Israel’s entrenchment of two separate legal systems based on Jewish supremacy.”
In early 2025, the Palestinian Authority announced it was ending payments to the families of those killed by Israel or imprisoned in Israeli jails, including many detained for attacks on Israelis.
But the Israeli government claims the system, which it dubs as the “Pay for Slay” program, still exists in other forms.