Interior Minister Gideon Saar
Interior Minister Gideon SaarFlash 90

Minister of the Interior, Gideon Sa'ar (Likud), has submitted a request to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to revoke the citizenship of Muhammad Faraj, for his 2012 terror attack on a Dan bus in central Tel Aviv, where 26 people were injured.

The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Faraj on 24 counts of attempted murder, aiding and abetting the enemy, use of explosives, and intent to cause serious injury. 

In November of 2012 an explosion took place on a Dan bus on Shaul Hamelech Street, in central Tel Aviv. The terror attack resulted in 26 people being injured - one seriously, one moderately, and the rest lightly. The attack was executed during Israel's 'Pillar of Defense' operation in the Gaza Strip, which was mounted after constant firing of rockets into Israel.

Several days after the attack, the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) arrested Faraj, who had obtained his Israeli citizenship as a child, when his father married a woman with Israeli citizenship.

Consent of the Attorney-General is required under the provisions of the Citizenship Law, before the Minister of the Interior can file an application to the Administrative Court for revoking citizenship.

In Sa'ar's request to the Attorney-General, he stated, "Faraj was convicted through his own admission of an act of terror, as defined by law. The denial of Israeli citizenship to a self-admitted terrorist is a clear case of a democracy defending its citizens", he wrote.