Adalah: Deportation Orders against Palestinian Citizens of Israel Violate Fundamental Human Rights, International Law

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 2026, announced that he has signed deportation orders against two Palestinian citizens of Israel.

This marks the first time that the 2023 Law to Revoke Citizenship and Residency is being implemented to physically remove citizens from the state of Israel.

The announcement concerns two citizens: one released in 2024 after serving 23 years in prison for security-related offenses, and another currently serving an 18-year sentence following a 2016 conviction, and who is now slated for deportation upon his release.

Netanyahu also announced that many more deportation orders are to come. The announcement does not indicate where the citizens will be deported to; however, the law notes that individuals may be expelled to territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority or to the Gaza Strip.

In a 2022 decision, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of citizenship revocation but established certain safeguards for citizens facing revocation and stipulated that the state must grant a permanent residence permit to any person rendered stateless by the revocation.

The 2023 law, under which these current orders were signed, was specifically designed to attempt to bypass this decision. By mandating deportation to the Palestinian Authority for those receiving financial support while in prison—a punitive measure aimed exclusively at Palestinians—the law allows for the permanent deportation from Israel of Palestinian citizens and residents, even if the deportation renders them stateless.

Adalah objected to the law throughout the legislative process, noting that the right to citizenship is a fundamental human right, and a prerequisite for the exercise of all other civil liberties. The arbitrary deprivation of citizenship, especially when it renders an individual stateless or leads to forced deportation, violates Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a nationality, as well as Article 8 of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. AsAdalah argued, the 2023 law is unconstitutional, punitive and discriminatory.

See Adalah’s Q&A about the 2023 law: Q&A: Law to Revoke Citizenship and Permanent Residency and Deport Palestinians Who Received Money – Adalah

In response to Netanyahu’s announcement, Adalah commented: “These deportation orders allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to be physically exiled from their homeland. The government has transformed the most fundamental human right into a conditional permit that can be revoked at will. This unprecedented move violates the absolute international prohibition against statelessness and destroys the most foundational basic protection of citizenship.”