Bill would make it easier to deport Palestinian residents

Likud MK Ohana: Israeli taxpayers are paying convicted terrorists’ National Insurance, because the High Court thinks it runs the country.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 00:02
Amir Ohana (photo credit: TWITTER)
Amir Ohana
(photo credit: TWITTER)
New legislation by Likud MK Amir Ohana seeks to expand the interior minister’s authority to revoke permanent- residence status for security reasons.
Ohana said Monday he planned to submit the bill in the coming days. He was drafting it as a response to a High Court of Justice ruling from earlier this month that stated an interior minister could not revoke the residency status of four east Jerusalem men elected to the Hamas faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council. One had been appointed a cabinet minister.
The court said, in a 6-3 decision, that in order to be able to do such a thing, the Knesset had to pass a law allowing the interior minister to revoke residency rights over of a “breach of trust” with the state, even if there were no concrete security warnings about the person.
If the Knesset does not pass such a law within six months, the four Hamas parliamentarians’ residency status will be reinstated.
As such, Ohana said he would “circumvent the controversial ruling” to give interior ministers more discretion in revoking permanent residence status for security reasons.
“The High Court needed 139 pages to hide the simple truth that any fool – except the elitist judges – knows, that Israel has a right to defend itself,” Ohana said. “The villainous, orange-bearded Muhammad Abu Tir, a convicted Hamas military man, will continue being a permanent resident and enjoy Israel’s National Insurance Institute payments from the Israeli taxpayer because the High Court decided it runs the State of Israel.”
Ohana also called on new Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut to “stop the wild rampage of canceling laws and Knesset and government decisions, and bring back the appropriate balance between branches” of state governance.
“We chose to live in a democratic country in which the people running it were elected by the public,” he added.
“This is a country with rule of law, not rule of judges.”
Palestinians in east Jerusalem have permanent residency status and are able to become citizens, though most have rejected that option.
The four men whose residency was rescinded by then-interior minister Ronnie Bar-On in 2006 are Palestinian Authority parliament members Abu Tir, Ahmad Atwan and Muhammad Tutach, as well as PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu Arafa.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.