Strategic Assessment

Since the outbreak of the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel, several proposals have urged the government to deport terrorists and their families to the Gaza Strip. These proposals are not new, and the idea of deporting terrorists is not unique to Israel. Deportation of terrorists is regarded as a solution that distances the threat, thereby reducing the likelihood of terrorist attacks; damages the organizational infrastructure of the terrorist organizations; and deters others from committing terrorist acts. Past cases, however, show that in the long term, deporting terrorists is liable to have negative consequences and encourage terrorism  instead of reducing it. This article examines the impact of the expulsion of terrorists in two cases: the deportation of senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives to southern Lebanon in 1992, and the political exile of senior al-Qaeda leaders in the 1980s and 1990s. In light of these precedents, this article recommends against the deportation of terrorists, or calls on policymakers at least to take the negative consequences of this measure into account when considering this measure.