Forty-two Knesset members from a wide spectrum of parties have submitted a bill which would strip terrorists of their Israeli citizenship or rights to be in Israel.
Under the bill, an Israeli resident or citizen who is sentenced to prison for an act of terror and who received payment from the Palestinian Authority for that act of terror will lose his citizenship or right to remain in Israel, and will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
The bill would allow the terrorist to regain his Israeli citizenship if he returns the funds to the Palestinian Authority.
Currently, Israelis can only lose their citizenship through a court order, and the Interior Minister submitting the request to the court must first receive permission from both the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) and Attorney General.
Very few requests go through this complex bureaucratic process and it is very rare that a request is approved.
Under the new law, the authority to revoke citizenship would be the Interior Minister's, and would occur upon receipt of funds from the Palestinian Authority.
MK Orit Strock (Religious Zionism), who initiated the bill, said: "This Memorial Day, we have succeeded in uniting most of the Knesset's parties around a law which will begin to do justice with terror victims and hold the terrorist murderers accountable. The wide agreement on this bill promises that it will soon be entered into the State of Israel's book of laws."
"This is the first step in a series of legislative steps which will return to the families of terror victims and to the entire State of Israel their ethics and national honor, in the face of those who want to murder us.