Article74 Magazine

Makram M. is a Jerusalem youth in his early twenties. Like other youths who grew up during the Intifada, he participated in demonstrations and stone throwing in the streets of Jerusalem, and was detained several times for interrogation by the Israeli intelligence. His education, has career aspirations, and personal future seemed secondary in those times. Today, Makram has finished school and works in a Jerusalem hotel. He has lost hopes for a political solution. He says that the Oslo Agreement will never lead to an independent Palestinian state, and Jerusalem will certainly remain under Israeli occupation. Now Makram wants to make up for his lost past, and he wishes to do what young people of his age enjoy - he wants to travel abroad to see the world. 

“I suddenly discovered that not having a passport is a serious problem. I do not have a Jordanian passport, because none of my family was ever issued one. My father applied, but he was interrogated by the Jordanian intelligence and they refused to give him a passport - for political reasons as he was told. I personally applied for a Jordanian passport four or five times back in 1993, but in vain. It was then that I started to think about the Israeli passport. Of course I consulted my friends; some said yes, why not, others were against it, but I decided to go ahead. I began to listen to the people and to ask, and I heard about Abu X who is known as a person who can fix things. Once I found him in the streets of our neighborhood, and I went to speak with him. I told him that I want an Israeli passport. He said that he would take care of it and that I should bring him US $ 500. Next time, again in the street, I gave him the money and he told me to go to apply at the Interior Ministry. In November 1994, I submitted the official application. I did not have to prove any knowledge of the Hebrew language. Since than I have returned to the ministry several times to inquire about my passport, but they always tell me to come back later. Also Abu X promises me that it will be okay.” 
The number of Palestinian Jerusalemites surrendering their Palestinian nationality by applying for Israeli citizenship is rising; Makram says that he personally knows two other youths who have applied in the same way. The majority of the applicants are persons who have lost their hope that the Palestinian political leadership will be able to obtain a solution that will allow them to live as free citizens, and they no longer want to put up with the Interior Ministry’s bureaucratic pressure on their daily lives - just like Makram, who could travel abroad on an Israel-issued travel document. But of course, such a travel document is valid for one year only, and foreign embassies do not like to issue visas for Palestinian youth just because they want to travel. Israeli citizenship seems to be the solution. Of course, these people do not know that as Palestinians they will remain second class citizens of Israel, and that Israeli law does not even give them the right to live in Jerusalem with a non-citizen spouse. They also don’t know - or don’t care - about the fact that they support a new Israeli strategy in the demographic battle on Jerusalem. The Israeli Interior Ministry, contravening its usual secrecy when it comes to demographic data in East Jerusalem, has provided ample information about this new phenomenon. According to David Efrati, former head of the East Jerusalem Population Registry, the current rate of applications is 50% higher than in the past; an average of 60 applications per month have been submitted since May 1994. Many of these applications include a large number of children. The Palestinian leadership in Jerusalem has so far been unable to verify or to refute these data, and a convincing counter strategy is not in sight ...