Israeli minister moves to revoke citizenship of Palestinian charged with murder
Israel’s Interior Minister and founder of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, has officially begun the process of attempting to revoke the citizenship of a Palestinian citizen of Israel who has been accused of carrying out a "nationalistically-motivated" shooting in January, despite the fact that the trial and sentencing over the case has yet to begin.
Israeli news website Ynet reported on Monday that Deri sent a letter to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, asking for permission to begin the revocation proceedings against 21-year-old Muhammad Shinawi, a resident of the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, who was charged earlier this month for two shootings on Jan. 3 that left one Israeli injured and another dead.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement at the time that Israeli police, in collaboration with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, carried out a joint investigation into both cases, and “strongly suspected that this was a terror attack.”
“The suspect...decided that he was going to carry out an attack and kill as many people as possible,” Rosenfeld wrote. “The suspect admitted to police investigators that he carried out the shooting attack with (a Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle) that he had in his possession and that the attack was nationalistic.”
Israeli officials regularly use the terms “terrorism” or “nationalistic attack” when designating acts of violence committed by Palestinians against Jewish Israelis.
