(IsraelNN.com) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Saturday night that Israel should create laws allowing for the expulsion of terrorists’ families, even if they have Israeli citizenship.

Dichter’s statements, part of an increasingly hard-line taken by the former Shabak chief since a Grad-type missile nearly hit his Ashkelon home, came in light of the support in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods for the terrorist who murdered eight yeshiva students Thursday night.

The terrorist, a resident of the Jabel Mukabar neighborhood of Jerusalem, possessed an Israeli ID card.  His family members, who set up a mourners’ tent in his honor decorated with Hamas and Hizbullah flags, hold Israeli IDs as well.

Arab residents of Jerusalem have been involved in at least 20 percent of terrorist attacks against Israelis, Dichter said Saturday.  Israel must find a way to expel terrorists and their families and to prevent them from making use of the freedom of movement granted by an Israeli ID card to harm the state, he said.

Limits Statements to Eastern Jerusalem Arabs
Dichter’s seemingly hard-line stance is limited to Arabs from eastern Jerusalem, raising suspicion that it is another way of calling for the division of Jerusalem along demographic lines. Kadima Party colleague Chaim Ramon said the Jerusalem attack bolsters the argument to relinquish Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to PA control.

Asked by Arutz Sheva's Chizki Ezra on Friday whether Israel is facing a third "Intifada" Dichter said: "Israel experienced the first and the second Intifada and it seems to me that we learn from difficult experiences – not that we are free of mistakes – and that we face such threats more effectively today. If an Intifada breaks out, we know how to put it down," and expressed hope that a way will be found to send terrorists from eastern Jerusalem to Ramallah. "We faced difficult times here in Jerusalem and there is no intention, on the part of the security establishment, or the government of Israel, or the citizens of Israel, and especially the residents of Jerusalem, to let the terrorists take Jerusalem back to the first years of the Intifada."

Allows Family of Terrorist to Keep Mourners’ Tent
MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) sent an appeal to Dichter and Police Chief Dudi Levy Saturday night asking them to shut down the mourners’ tent that has been set up in Jerusalem’s Jabel Mukabar neighborhood in honor of the terrorist.  “It makes no sense that the Israeli government would allow this sign of respect for a lowly, contemptible murderer in her territory, or the flags of Hamas and Hizbullah which call for her destruction,” Erdan said.

The terrorists’ family built the tent unimpeded. Unlike the Jewish state, Jordan prevented attempts by relatives living there to set up a similar tent in the Hashemite-controlled territory.

A senior aide to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said the family was permitted to put up a mourning tent. “It’s not illegal to mourn him,” the aide said, comparing the situation to that of Dr. Baruch Goldstein, the local doctor who shot and killed Muslims at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron. Goldstein’s family and friends say he pre-empted a bloody Purim attack on the local Jewish community. Following the incident, Israel withdrew from most of Hevron and classified right-wing political groups Kach and Kahane Chai as illegal terrorist organizations.

Dichter’s aide said that while the tent will be allowed to remain open, the Hamas and Hizbullah flags will be removed.