Israel to revoke citizenship of nationals who joined IS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Israel will strip citizens who left the country to fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) of their citizenship, an Israeli minister said on Wednesday.

According to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, a modification to Israel’s nationality act enforced this month allowed the government to strip “those engaged in hostile activity” of their citizenship.

Deri said 20 citizens who joined IS in Syria and Iraq will have their citizenships revoked.

Officials in Israel estimated several dozen nationals were fighting for the militant group in Iraq and Syria, with some reports suggesting that “about 20 remain active.”

Israel’s internal security service, commonly known as Shin Bet, said the remainder of nationals who joined IS were either killed or returned to Israel where they were detained.

The Israeli Interior Minister said the new amendment would prevent IS recruits from returning home and carrying out “another car ramming.”

His remarks referred to a recent wave of IS-claimed attacks involving vehicles plowing into pedestrians across Europe, most recently in Barcelona, Spain.

According to an Israeli news agency, most of the suspected IS recruits to be stripped of their citizenships were Arabs.

Shin Bet warned that IS sympathizers among the Jewish state’s Arab minority posed a “serious security threat” to Israel.

Before the end of 2016, about 80 people—mostly Arab Israelis—were convicted of planning to join IS in Syria or Iraq.

Others were arrested for reportedly contacting IS militants on the internet and planning attacks at home, the security service reported.

Editing by Ava Homa