Israel’s Supreme Court will hear a petition Wednesday from the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center calling for the revocation of the citizenship of Arab MKs who visited Syria.
The petition was filed after a September 2006 visit to Syria by Arab MKs Wasel Taha, Jamal Zahalka and Azmi Bishara (Balad party). Bishara has since fled Israel due to an investigation into treason charges. Zahalka told government radio from Damascus at the time, "We don't see Syria as an enemy state." Shurat HaDin claims that the display of support for an enemy state should result in the nullification of citizenship and cessation of service in the Knesset by the MKs.
The petition agues that according to Israel’s citizenship law, any citizen who visits an enemy state automatically loses his Israeli citizenship from the moment he leaves Israel. According to Basic Law: Knesset, one who is not an Israeli citizen is not allowed to be elected or appointed to the Knesset. “Therefore, after the MKs from Balad visited Syria on September 7, 2006, the Knesset Speaker should have informed them of the conclusion of their appointment and their need to vacate their positions to the next in line on their party list,” the petition claims.
Shurat HaDin’s novel legal argument is that MKs are not immune from losing citizenship. “Until now MKs have not been prosecuted for visiting enemy countries due to the assumption that they enjoy absolute freedom of movement,” reads the petition. Shurat Hadin argues that, in fact, the law allows them to leave Israel, but not to enter enemy states.
The petition goes on to argue that the immunity which MKs enjoy protects them from legal action by the courts, but not from automatic administrative regulations such as those that strip visitors to enemy states of citizenship.
If the court sides with Shurat HaDin, the Interior Ministry would be instructed to erase the MKs’ names from the population and voter registries and exchange their passports with temporary travel papers.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz’s office has supported the claims made in the case, including that Knesset immunity does not provide the right to enter enemy states, but recommends that the revocation of citizenship be subject to the consideration of the Interior Minister.
“The language of the law is clear, and according to it every Israeli citizen that leaves Israel for an enemy state loses his citizenship,” says Shurat HaDin’s Director Nitzana Darshan-Leitner. “The Israeli government and Attorney General have for years enabled Arab MKs to travel to enemy states such as Syria and to display identification with Israel’s destruction. No country in the world would allow its parliament members to demonstrate solidarity with an enemy state."
“The time has come to enforce the law against MKs who see it as a praiseworthy endeavor to visit nations who aim to destroy the State of Israel, and meet leaders who stand behind the most murderous acts of terrorism against Israel. The freedom of movement that has been granted these MKs out of error or cowardice will now end. An Arab MK that wants to bond with an enemy state will no longer serve as a member of the Knesset,” Leitner said.
Though the case was filed shortly after the incident, it has only now reached the court’s docket. In the meantime, MK Azmi Bishara fled the country due to an investigation into treason and providing aid to Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War.