ISRAEL'S NEW CITIZENSHIP LAW

• The new law is an amendment to Israel’s 1952 Citizenship Law and applies to both Israeli citizens and permanent residents imprisoned after “a conviction for terror, aiding terror, harming Israeli sovereignty, inciting war, or aiding an enemy during wartime”
• Israel’s 1952 Citizenship Law, also known as the “Israel: Nationality Law, 5712-1952” allowed the extension of Israeli nationality to Palestinians under various conditions, including if “he was a Palestinian citizen immediately before the establishment of the State (of Israel)”
• Section 3 (a) of the 1952 law reads, “A person who, immediately before the establishment of the State, was a Palestinian citizen and who does not become an Israel national under section 2, shall become an Israel national with effect from the day of the establishment of the State” under conditions precedent like registration on the “4th Adar” or he was an inhabitant since before the 1952 law, among others
• However, even before the passage of such a law, Israel’s Supreme Court on July 21, 2022, in an appeal filed by the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), against the Haifa District Court’s 2017 decision, ruled that “disloyal citizens” can be revoked of their citizenship and residency for “breach of loyalty” including acts like espionage, terror, and treason

1. This law aims to take away the citizenship of “convicted terrorists” if they receive funding from the Palestinian Authority (PA) or any of its associated organisations. According to Al Jazeera, the PA is a semi-autonomous body that currently governs the occupied West Bank and renders financial assistance to the families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons or “those killed or seriously injured by Israeli forces.”
2. However, Israel dubs this the “pay for slay” policy, adding that the requirement to receive PA-linked money makes the law inapplicable to Jewish terrorists
3. A “convicted terrorist” can either be a Palestinian citizen of Israel or a Palestinian resident of occupied and annexed East Jerusalem holding Israeli residency

• The new law is aimed at serving as a deterrent to terrorism and comes in the wake of far-right leaders vowing to impose stringent measures against Palestinians amidst what it deems as a rise in attacks on Israelis by Palestinian residents of Israel.
• According to the New York Times, Palestinian residents of Israel have killed at least 11 Israelis since the start of the year, whereas close to 50 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of 2023, often during Israeli operations
•  The Israeli government also authorised nine previously unauthorised Jewish settlements in the West Bank amidst escalating tension with the Palestinians
• On the other hand, Arab lawmakers in the Knesset such as Ahmad Tibi have called the new law “racist” on account of its applicability to only Palestinians, as opposed to Jewish terrorists, through the requirement that those receiving PA funds will cease to be citizens
• The new citizenship law was passed despite a warning from a Justice Ministry senior legal adviser Avital Sternberg, who told the Times of Israel, “This proposal is complicated and poses legal difficulties,” adding that the law’s failure to consider a letter of declaration from the PA affirming that there are no ties between itself and the terrorist as proof could be a possible “legal impediment”