Israel begins revoking citizenship of four Arabs

Interior Minister Eli Yishai has begun the process of revoking the citizenship of four Israeli Arabs who left Israel to live in states defined by Israel as "enemies" in the 1970s, his ministry announced Tuesday.

An Interior Ministry statement said the head of the Population Directorate, Yaakov Ganot, had requested that Yishai consider taking the rare step against the four, who were involved in activities that endangered Israel's security.

Ganot told Lieberman that while the four were abroad they were involved, directly and indirectly, in a large number of activities hostile to the State of Israel। After decades of residing outside of the country, they have recently requested to return to Israel.
Yishai said he intends to study the documents presented to him and start the process of revoking the Israeli Arabs' citizenship.

The minister also announced that he will order their immediate arrest should they come to Israel.

MK Tibi: Why not revoke Yigal Amir's citizenship?
MK Ahmed Tibi on Tuesday issued a harsh criticism of Yishai's ruling, and questioned why Israel hadn't taken steps to revoke the citizenship of Yigal Amir ? the assassin of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The Israeli-Arab MK and deputy speaker of the Knesset said that the incident shows Israel has "an itchy trigger finger when it comes to revoking Israeli Arabs' citizenship", adding that when Arabs break the law "they are punished twice."

Legal Counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel Dan Yakir called the revocation of citizenship "extreme and inappropriate", even when the person in question has been convicted of a serious crime. Yakir added that it is a measure not undertaken by democratic countries.