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Hillel Maeir/TPS on 7 November, 2024
‘It’s Possible to Prevent the Next Attack’: Terror Victims Praise New Knesset Law
Jerusalem, 7 November, 2024 (TPS) -- For Meirav Hajaj, a new law passed by the Knesset on Thursday offers hope that future terror attacks — such as the truck-ramming that killed her daughter Shir — can be prevented.
“This is an extremely important law as far as my husband and I are concerned,” Hajaj told The Press Service of Israel. “We believe that it’s possible to prevent the next attack and that terror attacks are by no means a given.”
She was reacting to a law passed by the Knesset on Thursday that authorizes the Interior Minister to expel the relatives of terrorists if they knew of and supported the attack. Relatives would be barred from returning for 7-20 years depending on various factors. Lawmakers also approved a related bill strengthening the ability of authorities to detain minors who carry out terror attacks.
Hajaj’s 22-year-old daughter and three others were killed when an Israeli-Arab deliberately rammed his truck into a group of soldiers. Another 17 people were injured.
“We need effective steps to prevent more attacks,” Hajaj continues, “and this law is one of them. We’re very happy about this development, but we also hope to see the death penalty reinstated, and the demolition of the homes of Israeli citizens who commit terror attacks.”
According to legal expert Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the Director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, terror attacks are often supported by the local Israeli-Arab community and even raise the family’s social status.
“Once someone has a family member who commits a terror act it not only enriches them because of the payments that they receive from the Palestinian Authority, it also enhances their status in society,” he told TPS-IL. These payments are part of the Palestinian Authority’s practice of providing monthly stipends to the families of terrorists who carry out attacks. The PA makes Israeli-Arabs eligible to receive to receive the stipends.
“There are two bases for expulsion according to the new law,” Hirsch said. “The first is that [the family member] knew of the attack and didn’t report it beforehand, and the second is that they either glorified the attack or carried out incitement to cause more attacks.”
The law’s legal justification stems from the implications of the family members’ terror support. “Those are considered acts that are a show of disloyalty to the country,” Hirsch said. “That’s important because one of the justifications of canceling citizenship is carrying out acts that are against or disloyal to the country.”
The law, however, doesn’t go as far as stripping terror-supporting family members of their citizenship.
“This law doesn’t require stripping someone of their citizenship, it just says we’re not willing to entertain you here as part of our society… Instead of you enjoying the raised social status that you would enjoy otherwise,” Hirsch said.
Leaving family members with citizenship allows them to travel abroad, “Just not in Israel,” Hisch explained.
“The goal is cutting the legs off of the motivating factors for acts of terrorism,” he added.
