Article74 Magazine
WHO Will Stop Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem? As in the case of the new Israeli settlement on Abu Ghneim Mountain, the Israeli government is stubbornly ignoring local and international protests in regard to another blatant violation of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem, i.e. the confiscation of ID cards from Palestinian residents of the city. The first three months of 1997 were, in fact, characterized not only by Israeli disregard of the growing international criticism, but by the introduction of even more drastic measures against Palestinian residency rights in the city. Among the new measures is a standard letter addressed to a large number of Jerusalemites living in West Bank communities outside the city, sent via registered mail by the Interior Ministry to inform them that their “permanent residency permit in Israel has expired”; and search-visits to Palestinian homes conducted by investigators of the Israeli National Insurance Institute. Both measures indicate that the Israeli authorities are proceeding from a “passive role”, in which ID cards would be revoked from Palestinian residents who personally approached the Ministry with a specific request (e.g. travel document, family reunification), towards a more active role, in which the Ministry actually initiates ID card confiscations based on its own records and assumptions. In the meantime, the Interior Ministry continues denying any policy change and claiming that ID card confiscations are “usual and correct bureaucratic procedure.” However, Israeli politicians - questioned for the first time in a major Israeli TV-news program - have taken a much clearer stand. Uri Savir, legal advisor to the prime minister in the former Labor government and architect of the Oslo Accords, agrees with Ehud Olmert, Jerusalem mayor/Likud in that the revocation of Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem is part and parcel of the Oslo process. Both the Labor and the Likud government have taken concrete measures aimed at establishing the unilaterally defined borders of Israeli sovereignty; and “the division of Palestinian Jerusalemites between those who will be permitted to live in Israel - controlled Jerusalem and those who will not, is a logical consequence of establishing the necessary borders between the Israeli State and the Palestinian entity.” (Uri Savir and Ehud Olmert in Israeli TV-Channel 1, 30-3-1997). Revocation of Residency via Registered Mail The following letter is currently being sent to hundreds of Palestinian Jerusalemites who - due to the lack of adequate housing and the denial of family reunification - were forced to live in West Bank communities outside the Israel-defined municipal borders of occupied and annexed East Jerusalem: Population Registry Jerusalem East 17 Nablus Road, Jerusalem Tel. 02-6285406 Date: To: [name of East Jerusalem permanent resident] [his/her address in Jerusalem] Dear Sir/Mdme, re: [name of the above person] ID number __________ We hereby inform you that your permanent residency permit has expired according to the Law of Entry to Israel 1952 and the Entry to Israel Regulations 1974, due to the fact that you transferred the center of your life outside of Israel. Moreover, also the residency permit of the following family members has expired: ___________________________________________________________________________________ Based on the above, you are requested to return your ID card and your travel document to the office of the population registry in Jerusalem and to leave Israel. Yours sincerely, As of now, the Ministry insists that, “We are not spying on East Jerusalem residents, and there are no systematic checks, by means of computers, on who fulfills the criteria and who not ... However, when a person approaches the Population Registry with a request, such as an application for a new ID card, the registration of a newborn child, family reunification, etc., we check if this person really lives in the city” (Malka San/office of the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Interior to Ha’aretz, 17-3-1997). Information about recipients of this letter gathered in the framework of legal aid services suggests that the Interior Ministry does not thoroughly check personal records prior to mailing, but sends this letter to everybody who will - according to the Ministry’s assumption - later on have difficulty proving “center of life’ in the city. Thus this letter was received by Palestinian Jerusalemites who had lived abroad in the past, but returned to Jerusalem as many as five years ago, and by persons who never left the city by themselves, but have close relatives living abroad or in the West Bank, outside the city boundaries. Night-time Raids by National Insurance Investigators Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem and human rights organizations report that investigators of the National Insurance Institute (NII), accompanied by Israeli Border Police, have been raiding private Palestinian homes in the middle of the night. Such raids were reported from residents of al Ram, located on the northern boundaries of the city, but also from residents living in neighborhoods within the city boundaries (St. Yves Resource and Legal Aid Center, 24-2-1997). NII investigators, hired to determine whether a Palestinian family actually lives in Jerusalem and is thus entitled to state welfare services, function also as major informants to the Interior Ministry. NII investigators, in fact, criticize that the Ministry is slow to take action based on NII field information, and claim that many Palestinian families are issued ID cards, despite NII reports documenting that they live outside the city boundaries (Israeli TV/Channel 1, 30-3-1997). Case: Faten Ya’qoub Abu Khdeir Case: A 17 Year Old Youth, Living and Studying in Jerusalem, Cannot Prove “Center of Life” in the City |
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