Israel on Wednesday revoked the residency rights of the widow of Palestinian attacker who took part in last week’s deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue. 

 

The move came directly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared he would enact broad measures to repeal welfare and residency rights of any Palestinian citizen of Israel or resident of East Jerusalem that participates in the ongoing unrest.

 

“I have ordered the cancellation of Nadia Abu Jamal’s permit to stay in Israel. Anyone who is involved in terror must take into account that there are likely to be implications for their family members too,” Israeli Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement on Wednesday. 

 

Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, cousins from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir, attacked a group of morning worshipers at a synagogue in West Jerusalem on November 18, killing four Rabbis and an Israeli policeman. 

 

Nadia Abu Jamal was granted East Jerusalem residency after marrying Ghassan under a “family reunification” law allowing residents of West Bank to move in with spouses who hold either Israeli citizenship or permanent residency. The family reunification clause has been suspended since 2002.

 

Leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem condemned the decision to revoke Abu Jamal’s residency rights. 

 

“We object to this measure. It’s abuse of a minister’s authority and a form of collective punishment,” spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli told Agence France Press. 

 

“She isn’t accused of any harm, and the revoking of her residency status will actually mean she will be banished from her home and thrown out of the city she lives in. Residency and social benefits…aren’t gifts or favors the authorities bestow and can then take away. They’re essential aspects of people’s existence,” Michaeli said. 

 

On Sunday, Israeli authorities revoked the residency of a Palestinian man convicted of driving a suicide bomber to a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2001, an attack which killed 21 people. 

 

Israeli authorities have introduced a broad series of punitive measures against the families of Palestinians involved in the latest spate of attacks throughout Jerusalem, including home demolitions. 

 

Human rights watchdogs have condemned both practices—the revocation of residency rights and home demolitions—as collective punishment.