Senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Rawhi Fattouh on Thursday blasted the Knesset’s approval of a law permitting the deportations of family members of terrorists, declaring it as another step in the "racist" policy, as he put it, "that seeks to harm the Palestinian presence in the area."
In a statement issued by the PLO, Fattouh claimed that the law is "one of dozens of inciting penal laws that constitute a pillar of the policy of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian presence in the territories of 1948."
"This law derives from the approach of the Jewish Nationality and Jewish State Law, which does not recognize the existence of the original owners of the land and sees their presence as temporary," he added.
Fattouh called on the international community to take a strong stance and impose sanctions in wake of “the blatant Israeli violations of international law and conventions.”
The Knesset plenum approved early Thursday morning the second and third readings of the law allowing the deportation of families of terrorists, proposed by MKs Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud), Eliyahu Revivo (Likud) and Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit).
61 MKs voted in favor of the legislation and 41 voted against it.
The law stipulates that the Minister of the Interior will be permitted to order the deportation of a family member of a terrorist, after a hearing, if it is proven that he knew in advance of his relative's intention to commit an act of terrorism and did not make efforts to prevent the act.
In addition, the option will be given to deport a family member who expressed support or identified with the act, or published words of praise or encouragement for a terrorist act or a terrorist organization.
The validity of the deportation order for an Israeli citizen shall not be less than seven years and shall not exceed 15 years, and for a permanent or temporary resident - shall not be less than 10 years and shall not exceed 20 years.