“Betraying” the Israeli occupation, under the new law, is grounds to revoke permanent residency status.
On March 7, 2018, Israeli parliament passed a new law that empowers the interior minister to revoke the permanent residency status of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.
Specifically, the law enables the interior minister to revoke permanent residency if a Palestinian is found to have been granted the status “under false pretenses,” committed a criminal act, or “betrays the State of Israel.”
The law also prevents the Israeli supreme court from overturning any decision to revoke permanent residency status by the interior ministry.
Hanan Ashrawi, senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, called the law “extremely racist.” The law “gives full mandate to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government and future Israeli governments to revoke the IDs of Palestinians from Jerusalem at will and without just cause,” she adds.
Member of parliament for the Joint List Dov Khenin called the law “bad and dangerous legislation.” “The mechanism created by this law will bring the residents of East Jerusalem into the worst of all possible worlds. Residents of East Jerusalem live there not because they chose to be Israelis but because it is their home. You are in effect creating an obligation of loyalty for people for whom there is no connection of loyalty between them and the State of Israel.”
The European Union (EU) also criticized the law:
The new law could make the residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a protected population under International Humanitarian Law, even more precarious than it already is today. The new law could be used to further compromise the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem, which would further undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.
