العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On May 12, 2026, HaMoked filed a petition for an Order Nisi with the High Court of Justice (HCJ) seeking a repeal of Amendments 30 and 35 to the Entry into Israel Law. The amendments authorize the revocation of the permanent residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians alleged to have "breached their allegiance" to the State of Israel solely by virtue of being convicted of a "security" offense, regardless of its severity. The term covers offenses such as stone-throwing and property damage. The petition follows the State's intensified efforts to enforce these amendments.
After several years of limited implementation, Israel has significantly increased its enforcement efforts over the past three years. As a result, two East Jerusalem residents have already been stripped of their permanent residency status; one of them, who also holds French citizenship, was deported from his home in Jerusalem to France. Four additional residents are currently at imminent risk of deportation. Altogether, since the amendments were enacted in 2018, HaMoked has represented 12 permanent residents who received notices of the State's intention to revoke their residency on grounds of "breach of allegiance."
Background
Over the past seven years, the Knesset has enacted a series of extreme laws empowering the Minister of Interior to revoke the permanent residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians convicted of "security" offenses, and to deport or deny legal status to members of their families. The State presents these measures as legitimate tools of deterrence and punishment. In practice, however, they bypass the criminal justice system and vest sweeping powers in administrative authorities to strip hundreds, and potentially thousands, of Palestinians of their legal status and leave stateless, severely undermining their fundamental rights without meaningful judicial oversight.
HaMoked's petition concerns two amendments to the Entry into Israel Law:
Amendment No. 30, enacted in 2018, authorizes the revocation of the permanent residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians convicted of offenses deemed to constitute a "breach of allegiance" to the State of Israel. Their permanent residency is replaced with a temporary status that must be renewed every few years at the discretion of the Ministry of Interior. The renewal process is complex and often requires ongoing legal assistance. Even when all the formal requirements are met, administrative delays or the opening of a criminal investigation, even for a minor offense, may result in status revocation, leaving the individual with no legal status anywhere in the world.
Amendment No. 35, enacted in 2023, applies to East Jerusalem residents convicted of offenses defined as a "breach of allegiance" whose family members received financial assistance from the Palestinian Authority following their arrest. The amendment authorizes the Minister of Interior to impose a far harsher sanction than that set out in Amendment No. 30: revocation of permanent residency coupled with deportation to the West Bank, without any guarantee of alternative legal status. In the overwhelming majority of cases, those affected would be left without any legal status, as they are neither citizens nor permanent residents of any other country.
HaMoked's Petition
In its petition, filed on May 12, 2026, HaMoked challenged the premise underlying both amendments: that the basic rights of East Jerusalem Palestinians depend on their allegiance to the State of Israel. Under international law, East Jerusalem residents are protected persons living under occupation, and the occupying power is prohibited from compelling them to swear or demonstrate allegiance to it. Israeli law was applied to East Jerusalem unilaterally and without the consent of its Palestinian residents, whose rights are not equal to Israeli citizens and are, therefore, not expected to be members of its polity. Nevertheless, through Amendments 30 and 35, Israel conditions East Jerusalem Palestinians' right to remain in their homes on loyalty to a state they never chose to join.
HaMoked further argues that the amendments target individuals who have already been prosecuted, convicted and served the sentences imposed on them by the criminal courts. Consequently, these amendments establish a separate punitive regime applicable only to East Jerusalem Palestinians that allows further sanctions for offenses that have already been adjudicated by the criminal courts.
HaMoked also emphasizes that the right to legal status is particularly important, as its denial inevitably undermines a wide range of other basic rights, including the rights to liberty, family life, work, freedom of movement, health, bodily integrity, dignity and due process. Depriving a person of legal status therefore violates Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and strikes at the core principles of the democratic system.
Given the far-reaching consequences of residency revocation, such a measure requires robust procedural safeguards and meaningful judicial oversight. Instead, the amendments entrust the decision to an administrative process influenced by political actors, without effective judicial review and without guaranteeing residents an opportunity to present their case in person. The decision to revoke residency rests with the Minister of Interior, while judicial review is available only after the fact. Furthermore, the law does not require the Attorney General's approval.
The Court instructed the State to file its response to the petition by June 28, 2026. A hearing will then be scheduled with both parties present.
In the meantime, the government continues its efforts to enforce the amendments on East Jerusalem Palestinians. If fully implemented, hundreds of people could face revocation of their permanent residency, deportation and separation from their families, including nearly 300 East Jerusalem residents currently imprisoned for "security" offenses in Israeli prisons (as of December 2025), as well as hundreds of ex-prisoners.
