The prosecution filed a precedent-setting request on Wednesday to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two security prisoners convicted of plotting to help Hamas disable Cellcom’s communications network during a future war or military operation.
The request against Rani Awf and Shadi Aidi was submitted to the Central District Court in Lod at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who holds the relevant powers of the interior minister, and with the approval of the attorney-general.
According to the prosecution, this is the first time Israel has used this procedure, known as the “criminal route” for revoking citizenship.
Added to the Citizenship Law in 2011, the route allows a court that convicted a person of terrorism or certain serious security offenses to revoke their citizenship, in addition to the sentence already imposed, if the interior minister requests it and the attorney-general approves.
A qualifying conviction does not automatically lead to revocation. The state must still persuade the court that the case is among the “extreme and exceptional” cases serious enough to justify the step.
Israeli courts can revoke citizenship upon terrorism conviction
The Citizenship Law expressly allows revocation after a conviction for assisting an enemy during wartime. Awf and Aidi, however, were convicted of conspiring to assist an enemy during wartime because their plan was stopped before Cellcom’s systems were disabled.
The prosecution argues that this distinction does not exclude them. Legally, conspiring or attempting to commit an offense in its state-security chapter is treated in the same way as committing it.
This conspiracy conviction therefore gives the court the power to consider revoking the men’s citizenship, the state argued.
The prosecution is relying on a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Israel’s power to revoke citizenship for a grave breach of allegiance, while stressing that citizenship is a fundamental right tied to a person’s identity.
The justices said the power must be used sparingly.
They explained that its main purpose is not to add another punishment but to express the state’s conclusion that a citizen’s actions severed the most basic bond between the individual and the country.
The Supreme Court overturned the individual revocation decisions in the case because of defects in how the requests were filed. Several justices said the criminal route should generally be preferred because it gives defendants stronger procedural protections and allows the court to rely on facts already established in the criminal case.
The prosecution said it followed those safeguards here. Awf and Aidi were notified that revocation was being considered, submitted written arguments, and received oral hearings.
The men are Israeli citizens by birth and have no other citizenship or legal status abroad, according to the request.
Revoking their citizenship would therefore not automatically deport them or leave them without legal status. The state said they would instead receive permanent residency in Israel or another permanent status established by law.
The request stems from a plot that the two admitted to carrying out while working at Cellcom.
Awf worked as a geographic information systems developer, while Aidi was an outside consultant specializing in communications and computer networks. Both had extensive access to the company’s systems.
Plans to disable communications systems years in the works
According to the amended indictment, the two began planning in 2015 to develop the capability to disable central Cellcom computers and information systems during a war or military operation.
Aidi provided tools and computer code designed to bypass security systems, conceal unauthorized activity, overload servers, and preserve access to sensitive parts of the network.
Awf maintained contact with senior Hamas officials in Turkey and transferred sensitive information about Israeli communications infrastructure, Cellcom’s cybersecurity systems, and ways to bypass them.
Cellcom provides services to civilian customers as well as the IDF and Israel Police.
The two were convicted under a plea agreement of conspiring to assist an enemy during wartime and providing information to an enemy with the intention of harming state security.
Awf was also convicted of disclosing an intention to commit treason and contact with a foreign agent.
In October 2024, Awf was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined NIS 30,000. Aidi was sentenced to five-and-a-half years and fined NIS 15,000. Both also received suspended sentences.
The filing acknowledges that the plot was stopped before Cellcom’s systems were disrupted and that no concrete damage was proven.
The prosecution nevertheless argued that the court should focus on the years of preparation, the abuse of workplace access, the planned timing during a war, and the potential damage to a communications network used by civilians and security forces.
The sentencing court described that potential danger as “high, very high” and said an attack in the cyber world could be as serious as, or even more serious than, a violent attack in the physical world.
“The actions taken by the two, which were intended to damage a central Israeli communications infrastructure during a military operation in order to assist the enemy in its war against the state, constitute a clear and extreme breach of allegiance,” the prosecution wrote.
Their conduct, the state argued, is precisely the kind of exceptional case for which the citizenship-revocation law was created.