As explained by Advocate Osama Al-Halabi and St, Ives law support firm, there are three major reasons Palestinians have their right to reside stripped from them. If a Jerusalemite moves away for more than five years he is at risk to have his identity card taken away. While the official limit is seven years, whether the individual has gone overseas to study, is living with a spouse in the West Bank or Jordan temporarily, or is visiting children in another country, more than five years outside of Jerusalem puts a person at risk for losing their papers. Israeli authorities check regularly how many times a Jerusalem resident has passed through Israel.
The second mechanism is when the resident holds an international passport. The moment he comes back to Israel and he is caught as holding another citizenship or residency permit his blue identity card is automatically confiscated.
The third is that if the resident also wants to reside in the West Bank, for reasons of finding a better job or housing or for family unification since Israel does not allow the spouse from the West Bank to reside in the city, His identity will be confiscated without even telling him and then he will be treated as a visitor in his own motherland.
For a series of other infractions, Al-Halabi says, Israel can easily confiscate the Israeli identity from Jerusalemites [by] banning them from working in Israel; [if they cannot work] they are forced to leave and find employment outside the Israeli areas, so the first mechanism is then put in motion.
In 2006, Israeli Human Rights organization BTselem indicated that in 2006, Israeli authorities confiscated 1,363 identity cards from Jerusalemites.
The 2008 year set an all-time record for the number of Arab residents of East Jerusalem who were stripped of residency rights by the Interior Ministry. Altogether, the ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 East Jerusalemites in 2008 - 21 times the average of the previous 40 years.
In the first 40 years of Israeli rule over East Jerusalem combined, from 1967 to 2007, the ministry deprived only 8,558 Arabs of their residency rights - less than double the number who lost their permits in 2008 alone. Thus of all the East Jerusalem Arabs who have lost their residency rights since 1967, about 35 percent did so in 2008.
In addition Israel issues and changes laws frequently where all these policies are made fit to enable one aim and that is to have a Jewish majority in the city on the long run. In 2010 Israel issued an intention of law to deport 300 Jerusalem Palestinians for political reasons. This law if passed might be the grounds for more deportations and transfer of people to come.
Yusef Daher
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment