The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JSCER) published a report revealing that Israel stripped the residency rights of 4672 Palestinians in 2008 comparing to stripping residency rights of 229 Palestinians in 2007. The center had to file an official request to receive this date from the Israeli Interior Ministry, although the JSCER paid the frees for this data, it took Israel more than two years to provide it.
Stripping residents rights of Jerusalem Palestinians is done by voiding their identity cards and forbidding them from living in Jerusalem.
The number of Palestinians who managed to regain their residency rights in 2007 arrived to 67 comparing to 83 in 2008.
In 2007, 750 applications for family reunification were filed to Israel’s Interior Ministry, and only 431 applications were accepted.
In 2008, 816 family reunification applications were filled and only 404 were approved.
After occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli decided to consider the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem “permanent residents” , but in 1974, Israel altered the law allowing the Interior Minister to strip the residency right of any Palestinian who lives outside the boundaries of Jerusalem for more than 7 years.
The law also allows the Interior Minister to strip the residency rights of any Palestinian who obtains a foreign citizenship or who is found to be “a threat to national security”.
Yet, Israeli Jews who live in various countries around the world are never under the risk of losing their residency or citizenship rights.
In 1988, Israel added another amendment to the law allowing its Interior Ministry to strip the residency rights of Jerusalem Palestinians who live in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip for seven years.
In 2002, Israel issued a ruling allowing granting family reunification for spouses of Jerusalem Palestinians, and amended the law in 2005 placing further restrictions and age limitations on Palestinian applications preventing thousands of applications from being processed.
On July 30 1980, the Israeli Knesset decided that “united Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of Israel”, a decision that directly violated all related Security Council and United Nations resolutions.
In 1968, Israel issued two resolutions (#250 and 253) “legalizing” all illegal land grab and property annexations, in which Israel confiscated Palestinian lands and properties in East Jerusalem after occupying the city.
The JSCER revealed that out of nearly 270.000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem, there are 10.000 children born in the city but were never granted Jerusalem identity cards.
It said that such violations are political in nature as Israel want to reduce the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem while significantly increasing the number of Jewish settlers.
