| Palestinians in East Jerusalem - Chronology of Bureaucratic Eviction after 1967 The legal basis: Law of Entry into Israel (1952), Entry into Israel Regulation (1974) stating that “permanent residents” are liable to lose their status if they live outside the country for more than seven years and/or apply for permanent residency/citizenship in a foreign country.
1967-1995: Palestinian Jerusalemites living abroad: Israel used to issue re-entry visas were valid between one and three years, and were issued by the Jerusalem Interior Ministry and Israeli representations abroad. Palestinian Jerusalemites were thus made to believe that regular renewal of their visa would protect their residency rights in Jerusalem.
1967-1993: Free access from the West Bank/Gaza to Jerusalem, however, Palestinians not Jerusalem residents were forbidden to spend the night in the city.
1967-1982: Family Reunification and Child Registration: both Jerusalem men and women could submit applications for family reunification for their non-resident spouse; applications were handled by the Interior Ministry arbitrarily and in small numbers; both male and female Jerusalemites could register their children as Jerusalem residents;
1982: Order by Interior Ministry to Jerusalem hospitals to not register children whose father is not Jerusalem resident; Interior Ministry began systematic refusal to handle family reunification applications by female Jerusalemites;
1988: High Court decision against Mubarak Awad: legal precedent for “center of life” as a condition for entitlement to resident status; not applied against Palestinians who did not raise their issue in Israeli courts.
1993: permanent military closure prevents access to Jerusalem from the West Bank;
1994: Interior Ministry decides to handle family reunification applications by female Jerusalemites for their non-resident spouses, but conditions handling with proof of “center of life” in the city.
1995: “Center of life” criteria and Israeli law (1952, 1974) applied in large scale against all Jerusalemites living abroad, including persons living in the surrounding West Bank, irrespective of whether they hold valid Jerusalem documents or not.
1996: Interior Ministry announcement of illegality of “dual nationality”: large scale confiscation of ID cards from Jerusalemites holding foreign passports; proof of “center of life” is conditional also for family reunification applications by male Jerusalemites; Israel stops issuing Jerusalem entry permits to spouses of Jerusalemites. |
