Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) has announced his ministry will not be renewing the residency permit of the father of a terrorist who injured four people in a car ramming and stabbing attack last October. The terrorist, Alaa Raeed Ahmed Zayud, ran over two soldiers with his car at a bus station near Gan Shmuel in northern Israel, between Hadera and Afula. Zayud then exited his car and stabbed two civilians - among them a 15-year-old girl. Zayud, who showed no remorse in court , is facing multiple charges for the attack. His father, Raeed Zayud, is a resident of the Palestinian Authority who had been granted permanent residency status in Israel under family unification laws after he married an Israeli Arab, and moved to the northern Israeli Arab village of Umm al-Fahm. His residency status allowed him to receive Israeli social security and other benefits - all of which will now be revoked by the decision to effectively terminate his status. Among the reasons given for the decision was that Raeed broke the terms of his residency status, including by maintaining links to and contacting relatives in the PA who were active terrorist operatives. An interior ministry spokesman said Deri's decision was part of wider efforts by the ministry to "prevent the use of Israeli residency... to carry out terror attacks." Deri's move is part of a wide swathe of deterrent measures taken by the Israeli government against terror. The decision to not renew a residency permit is a relatively rarely-used and unusual step. "We will cause terrorists who go out to carry out attacks to understand that their actions have repercussions for their family members as well," Deri said in a statement Thursday morning explaining his decision.
