Quote Originally Posted by lobo76
Rebels can be targeted. I liberated Antioch after a crusade in my French campaign. Too lazy to administer a city so far away, I give it to HRE to try to buy a ceasefire (which didn't work out)... but I gifted it to them anyway... AFTER I sold all the buildings in the city for $$$.

It rebel right after HRE took over, and my cardinals become the pope soon after. Looking at my list of crusade targets, Antioch is included.
A city simply being rebel is not sufficient cause for a crusade. The reason Antioch was on the list was because it was rebel AND muslim religion.

In order to be a Crusade target, a city must be one of the following
rebel and (muslim or pagan religion)
Controlled by Muslim faction AND have certain % of catholic or meet other unknown pope criteria.
Controlled by an excommunicated faction

Not every city meeting these will be on the list, there are only so many spots and the pope chooses them for weird reasons.