Article74 Magazine

 
Jerusalem ID Card Confiscations  

Throughout the summer, the Jerusalem Interior Ministry - apparently unhampered by the emerging protests - intensified its policy of ID card confiscations by introducing two major new measures:  

- Palestinian Jerusalemites holding a foreign passport in addition to the blue Israeli ID card, are forced to chose between them: Persons concerned, including people who have been holding foreign citizenship for years, are informed that they will be canceled from the Jerusalem population registry unless they relinquish their passport; sometimes their Jerusalem ID card is confiscated without prior notice when they approach the Ministry on a personal matter. Although the Ministry withdrew in some cases, i.e. well off and influential Jerusalemites holding of US passports, who were able to obtain the support of the US Consulate and other foreign representations, these protests have not succeeded in halting the new policy. It is  currently applied mainly against Palestinian Jerusalemites, citizens of a foreign country and living abroad. The legal argument used by local lawyers and human rights organizations to counter the new measure is the same as in the case of Jerusalemites living outside the municipal boundaries for more than seven years: Although Regulation 11 of the Law of Entry to Israel (1952) specifies that persons who applied for foreign citizenship cease to be residents of Israel, this provision was not implemented in the past and any policy change without prior public announcement is unacceptable and contradicts the requirements of correct procedure.  

- Spouses of Jerusalemites with pending applications for family reunification are no longer issued entry permits to Jerusalem: This new policy, announced by the Office of the Legal Advisor/Beit El to Atty Lea Tsemel in writing, replaces past procedure, according to which such spouses were entitled to renewable three (sometimes six) month entry permits until the Jerusalem Interior Ministry would issue its decision on the family reunification application. While the old procedure had recognized that the handling period for applications at the Interior Ministry was far too long (up to two years and more) for a family to live separated, the new policy cynically disregards the basic right of Palestinian families to share a place of living:  
“Marriage to an Israeli spouse is not a criteria for leaving the [area under] closure and concerning your argument of the sacred rights of the family, nobody prevented your client to protect this sacred right inside the areas [occupied territories under closure] ... At this stage, it was decided as a norm to issue exit permits [from the closure] for spouses only after their family reunification application submitted in Israel is approved, i.e. in the interim period in which eligibility to obtain permanent resident status is checked and not in the period preceding the answer to the family reunification application.”  [Yehuda Cohen, Ass. Legal Advisor, Beit El, 14/8/1996; emphasis in the original]  
The medium and long-term implications of this new policy are evident: The Jerusalem Interior Ministry requires applicants for family reunification to prove that their “center of life” is in the city, in order to issue a positive decision. Since the applicant’s non-resident spouse can no longer obtain a permit to enter Jerusalem, the family is forced to establish a temporary domicile outside of Jerusalem, thus rendering the Ministry’s condition of documented presence in the city more difficult or even impossible. Consequently, many of these applications for family reunification will be refused, families who failed to obtain a positive answer will then be forced to establish permanent domicile outside of Jerusalem. Children born to these families will not be registered as residents of Jerusalem, and - in the long term- even the residents of Jerusalem spouse may forfeit his/her right to live in the city (since also s/he transferred the “center of life” outside the city boundaries).  

Alarmed at the steady increase in the number of cases of ID card confiscations during the summer, NGOs launched frantic efforts to put pressure on the Israeli Interior Ministry: the AIC initiated an emergency meeting between cooperative members of the Knesset and the Interior Minister; in the framework of the Jerusalem Lobby, local NGOs briefed Faisal Husseini, targeted local and foreign media, sent reports to several foreign representations and disseminated legal advise to the broad Palestinian public in and around Jerusalem.  
The local effort was shared by the AFSC in Chicago whose activists launched a support campaign in the United States: basic information was distributed among key activists, politicians and institutions ; a letter and a petition demanding the immediate stop of ID card confiscations in Jerusalem was sent to the Israeli Embassy in Washington and to the Israeli Interior Minister.  

Despite some minor successes (reports by Israeli and foreign media, interventions by foreign representations in Jerusalem, regular coordination with selected Israeli parliamentarians) the level of response has remained disappointing.  
On the local scene, the Orient House has failed to keep its promise to take an active role in the defense of the residency rights of Palestinian Jerusalemites and statements by Israeli officials to the fact that they would be ready to reconsider their policies are not confirmed by the facts on the ground: ID cards of students studying abroad continue to be confiscated, despite a promise by Interior Minister Eli Suissa to handle the subject in a preferable manner [al Quds, 23/7/96]; the order to halt all ID card confiscations in Jerusalem until the matter is clarified by the special investigation committee - issued by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and quoted by the Palestinian press [al Quds, 10/9/96] has obviously not reached the Interior Ministry.  

“I’ve been surprised by the ignorance of this issue, when it comes to the US public - and among Arabs here. I had the humiliating experience of going to an Arab-American reception during the Democratic Convention in Chicago and being rebuffed by several Arabs who wouldn’t sign a petition! I have also had church folk say they wouldn’t sign, ‘because we are only presenting one side of the issue’ ...” [Jennifer Bing Canar, AFSC-Chicago/Family Reunification Project] 

 
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