Israel Strips Attacker's Widow of Residency
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Israel revoked the residency rights of the widow of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue earlier this month, drawing condemnation from human rights groups.
The move came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would seek broad powers to rescind the residency and welfare rights of any Palestinian resident of Israel or occupied East Jerusalem, al-Quds if they, or their relatives, participated in unrest.
"I have ordered the cancellation of Nadia Abu Jamal's permit to stay in Israel," Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement.
"Anyone who is involved in terror must take into account that there are likely to be implications for their family members too."
The statement said the wife of Ghassan Abu Jamal had been granted East Jerusalem residency under a "family reunification" clause allowing residents of the Palestinian territories to stay with spouses who hold either Israeli citizenship or permanent residency, Al Jazeera reported.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem have residency rights but not citizenship.
Cousins Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, killed five people at a synagogue on November 18 before being shot dead by police, in the city's bloodiest attack in six years.
