How Israel used discriminatory laws to strip Palestinians of citizenship

Israel’s announcement to revoke the citizenship of two Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks has drawn condemnation from Palestinians and rights groups, who said that the move “constitutes a grave and alarming precedent” that paves the way for targeting thousands of detainees and former prisoners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an order on Tuesday revoking the citizenship of two Palestinians, who will be deported from Israel. This is the first time that a 2023 discriminatory law is being used to physically deport Palestinians from Israel.

Why is Israel stripping Palestinians of their citizenship?

Netanyahu wrote in an X post on Tuesday: “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.”

A district court must now review the deportation orders within 30 days and either approve or reject them, and the case could ultimately reach the Supreme Court if appealed.

Referring to Ofir Katz, a Knesset member from the Likud party, Netanyahu added: “I thank the Coalition Chairman @OfirKatzMK for leading the law that will deport them from the State of Israel, and many more like them on the way.”

One of these men was released from prison for security-related offences in 2024 after serving 23 years, while the other is currently serving an 18-year sentence following a 2016 conviction, according to Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) released a joint statement on Wednesday saying that the decision is based on a discriminatory law, legislation passed by the Israeli parliament in February 2023.

The 2023 law made it easier for authorities to strip citizenship or residency from Palestinians jailed for what Israel defines as “acts of terror”.

The law targets Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians in the occupied and illegally annexed East Jerusalem who hold Israeli residency.

It states that the Palestinians can lose their citizenship or residency after being convicted or charged for an “act of terrorism” and receiving money from the Palestinian Authority, which governs the occupied West Bank.

“This is clearly punitive and discriminatory; such intent became evident throughout the entire legislative process. Adalah objected to this law from its inception, noting that it was designed to target Palestinians exclusively,” Miriam Azem, the international advocacy coordinator at Adalah, told Al Jazeera.

“The intent was stated openly in Knesset committee discussions,” Azem said, citing the example of how Likud Knesset member Hanoch Milwidsky said, “I don’t feel any need to justify myself on the fact that I am in the state of the Jews that prefers Jews,” in 2023.

“I prefer Jewish killers to Arab killers,” Milwidsky added back then.

Prior to the 2023 legislation, the Citizenship Law of 1952 already allowed for the revocation of citizenship or residency of Palestinians in Israel and Jerusalem on the grounds of “breach of loyalty to the State of Israel”.

“Breach of loyalty” is defined to include carrying out an “act of terror,” aiding or soliciting such an act, or “taking an active part” in a “terrorist organisation,” among other activities.

“By rendering individuals stateless, Israel is acting in flagrant violation of the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,” Azem said.

“The public boasting by the prime minister and MK Ofir Katz confirms that this is a cynical propaganda move, weaponising the law against Palestinians for political gain.”

‘Apartheid’: Which other Israeli laws discriminate against Palestinians?

The 2023 citizen revocation law is aimed primarily at Palestinians and adds to a longstanding body of legislation that is applied differently to Palestinians in Israel than to Jewish Israelis.

There are currently about 100 Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens in Israel and Palestinian residents of the occupied Palestinian territory, according to Adalah.

In 2018, Israel’s parliament adopted a controversial “Jewish nation-state” law defining the country as a Jewish homeland, further marginalising Palestinian citizens of Israel. The law stipulates that Jewish people have “an exclusive right to national self-determination”.

Last November, Israel passed a first draft of a death penalty bill, introducing capital punishment for those convicted of killing Israelis if they had “racist” motives or were doing it “with the aim of harming Israel”. The bill is under discussion in the Knesset.

Legal experts say the law is discriminatory in how it defines “terrorism”. Palestinians’ attacks will most likely be dubbed “racist”, attracting the death penalty.

In a statement on February 3, Amnesty International called on Israel to abandon the bill, warning that the measures would violate international law and “further entrench Israel’s apartheid system” against Palestinians.

Amnesty’s statement said: “If adopted, these bills would distance Israel from the vast majority of states which have rejected the death penalty in law or in practice, while further entrenching its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls.”

Last week, the Israeli cabinet passed measures aimed at expanding its power across the occupied West Bank, making it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally. This has come despite the 2024 UN resolution calling for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

“These measures are part of a broader systemic assault on Palestinians, where the legal system itself is used as an instrument of oppression,” Azem said.

“These are not isolated laws; they are part of a wave of Israeli legislation that targets Palestinians – both citizens of Israel and those living under occupation – by using ‘counterterrorism’ or ‘security’ as a proxy for racial discrimination. These laws, and many others, further entrench a regime of apartheid and repression over all Palestinians under Israeli control.”

How many Palestinians live in Israel?

There are about 1.9 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship as of 2019, according to Israel’s census.

Most are descendants of Palestinians who remained inside Israel when it was founded in 1948. About 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled, and thousands more were killed by the Zionist militias, in the lead-up to Israel’s creation. Israel continues to block their right of return while granting Jews from across the world the right to immigrate to Israel, as well as to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

More than 750,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements built on Palestinian-owned land in the occupied West Bank.

In very limited cases, Palestinians who hold residency in East Jerusalem can apply to obtain Israeli citizenship.

They have to undergo a difficult naturalisation process, and a small number can apply via family links – but for most Palestinians in the illegally occupied territory, current Israeli law makes acquiring citizenship virtually impossible.

In 2022, Israeli outlet Haaretz reported that only 5 percent of Palestinians in East Jerusalem had successfully obtained Israeli citizenship since 1967.

For Palestinians who have “permanent” residency status to live in Jerusalem, entry into and residency in Jerusalem is “a revocable privilege, instead of an inherent right”, according to human rights organisation Al-Haq.

“By stripping citizenship and deporting Palestinians, the state is not merely punishing individuals; it is dismantling the very essence of citizenship to maintain a system of supremacy,” Azem from Adalah said.

Israel does not explicitly deny citizenship to people who are not Jewish.

However, it has the preferential Law of Return for Jewish people, which provides Jews with an almost automatic right to immigrate and receive citizenship. Everyone else, including Palestinians, has to undergo regular naturalisation.

Palestinians who live in Gaza or the West Bank are typically not allowed to enter Israel, and, in exceptional circumstances, require permits, which are extremely rare and difficult to obtain.

Even after they obtain permits, they have to pass through several checkpoints and other barriers such as roadblocks, earth mounds, road gates, road barriers and trenches.

In 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 565 such obstacles in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and excluding the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron.

However, Palestinian men from the West Bank over the age of 55 and women over the age of 50 can enter East Jerusalem without a permit.

Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah, told Al Jazeera earlier that the recent revocations are “part of the war against Palestinians”.

“Palestinians in Gaza under genocide, Palestinians in West Bank are facing the violence of the settlers and army, and now Palestinian citizens are facing the threat of revoking their citizenship.”

What is the status of Palestinian citizens in Israel?

Besides being subjected to discriminatory legislation, Palestinian citizens face violence in Israel. In 2025, 300 people were murdered inside Israel. Out of these, 252 were Palestinian citizens.

Al Jazeera has reported how crime has surged in Palestinian towns and villages across Israel. Gunmen target the homes and businesses of Palestinian citizens.

About 38 percent of Palestinian households fall below the poverty line in Israel, many well below it, according to Israel’s National Insurance Institute.

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel are “unable to live a normal life,” Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament representing the left-wing Hadash-Ta’al faction, told Al Jazeera.

Unemployment is also a crisis facing Palestinian citizens in Israel. Only 54 percent of Palestinian men and 36 percent of Palestinian women in Israel have jobs, after already low employment levels plummeted in tandem with the genocide in Gaza, according to figures from 2024.