By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would soon propose a bill that denies those who carry out attacks against Israeli targets residency rights and social benefits, Netanyahu's office said Saturday.
It said following discussions last week, Netanyahu was expected to propose the bill against those who commit "terrorist" attacks with national ramifications.
Netanyahu's office added that the bill would target the people who carry out these attacks as well as their family members.
"It cannot be that those who act in terror against the state of Israel enjoy rights such as national insurance," Netanyahu was quoted by his office in a statement as saying.
Stripping the families of the perpetrators of attacks against Israel of their residency rights means expelling these families out of areas controlled by Israel.
The office of the Israeli premier did not refer to the areas where the new bill would be applied. It is, however, believed that the bill will target Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem.
Tension has run high in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in recent months following Israel's 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip, in which over 2,160 Palestinians were killed.
Meanwhile, increasingly frequent intrusions by Jewish settlers and Israeli officials into East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – along with fresh restrictions on Muslim worshippers at the site – have angered Palestinians and often led to clashes.
Tension mounted further on October 30, when Israel briefly closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex after an extremist rabbi was shot by a Palestinian man in West Jerusalem.
Since then, 11 Israelis, including two security personnel, have been killed – and several others injured – in a spate of attacks by Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied territories.
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