Tel Aviv bus bombing, November 2012
Photo: EPA
Sa'ar pushes to revoke Israeli citizenship of Tel Aviv terrorist
Terrorist convicted of bus bombing on final day of Pillar of Defense got his citizenship as part of family reunification.
Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar has submitted a request to Attorney General Yehuda Weinsten to revoke the Israeli citizenship of Muhammad Mafarji, who was convicted of committing the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv in November 2012.
Mafarji, from Tayibe, was convicted of 24 counts of murder attempts, committing an act that shows intention to aid the enemy and causing an explosion, in a bus bombing in Tel Aviv on the final day of Operation Pillar of Defense.
Twenty-six people were wounded in the attack, one of them in serious condition, another in moderate condition and the rest lightly.
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Mafarji, who was arrested by the Shin Bet several days after the attack, received his Israeli citizenship as part of family reunification with his father.
The attorney-general's approval is required by law before the request could be transferred to an administrative court in order to revoke the citizenship.
In his request to the attorney-general, Sa'ar stated that the terrorist was convicted after admitting to committing a terror act, as is define by law.
"Revoking citizenship from terrorists who were convicted of terror crimes is a clear act of a democracy defending itself from a citizen acting to murder Israeli citizens," Sa'ar said.
