Israel’s Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an all time record in 42years of occupation

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=243675

Thousands in East Jerusalem lost residency rights

Published today (updated) 02/12/2009 10:45

The blue Israel-issued ID card given to Jerusalemite Palestinians [MaanImages]

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an all time record in 42 years of occupation.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz made the figures public on Wednesday. Last year’s total was 21 times the average of the previous 40 years.

In the first 40 years of Israeli occupation Israel revoked residency rights of 8,558, than double the number who lost their ID cards last year alone.

The Interior Ministry told Haaretz that the increase stemmed from a 2008 decision by the previous Israeli government to investigate the legal status of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

Attorney Yotam Ben-Hillel of Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual said the 250,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have the same legal status as people who immigrated to Israel legally, but are not entitled to citizenship.

"They are treated as if they were immigrants to Israel, despite the fact that it is Israel that came to them in 1967," he said, according to Haaretz.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in 1967, and annexed a chunk of the West Bank as a part of the city, which it declared its capital. Palestinians in the annexed territory refused Israeli citizenship. Like the international community, they do not recognize the legitimacy of Israeli control over the area.

Jerusalemite lawyer Usama Al-Halabi said in a recent interview with Ma’an that “every Palestinian with Israeli identity has no real rights to life in Jerusalem. Israel can confiscate the identity at any time.”

Because of their status as non-citizen residents, Palestinians in Jerusalem can easily lose their ID cards. According to lawyers who spoke to Ma’an, simply leaving for five years, or obtaining residency or citizenship in another country can endanger a Jerusalem resident’s rights.