Over 50 people attended an open forum on “The Confiscation of Jerusalem Identity Cards from Jerusalemite Women” at the Jerusalem Center for Women in Dahiet al-Barid on May 25. Many of those attending were themselves victims, or relatives of victims of the Interior Ministry’s policy of confiscating Jerusalem ID cards from Palestinians, mainly women, living outside the city. 
The meeting opened with a speech by Azmi Abu al-Soud, a former employee at the Israeli Interior Ministry and now director of the Center for Studies of Civil and Social Rights at the Orient House. He explained how ID cards are confiscated, both by Interior Ministry clerks, and by soldiers at checkpoints and the Allenby Bridge. Clerks often say they need to “hold onto” the Jersusalemites ID for a short period, and then refuse to return it. Soldiers, while checking IDs at a checkpoint, sometimes surreptitiously confiscate the form that accompanies all ID cards which lists the holder’s address and any children who are registered on his/her ID card. The Jerusalemite, upon finding this form missing, must then go to the Interior Ministry for a new one. There a cases where the form is returned, but with the children no longer registered on the ID. Instead, they are considered “visiting children”. 

Abu al-Soud was frequently interrupted by those attending the forum, who are desperate to have their IDs returned. Palestinians without IDs in Jerusalem become captives of the city, often confining themselves to their houses. With the stepped-up police and army presence in and around the city designed to keep Palestinians out of the city and monitor the movements of those within, ID-less people face the constant threat of expulsion.  
Abu al-Soud differed with Quakers Legal Service lawyer Ussama Halabi who said the ID confiscation was a policy decision by the Interior Ministry - Abu al-Soud maintained that it is the result of random actions. 
Jerusalem Municipality councilor Anat Hoffman, also attending the forum, advised people that the Interior Ministry will only stop victimizing them when they take collective action. She told them to take advantage of the fact that they live in a “democracy” - ignoring the fact that Israel has defined Jerusalem Palestinians as “permanent residents,” and as such Israeli law does not grant them the inalienable right to live in the city, or elsewhere in Palestine. 
Following Hoffman’s statements, Abu al-Soud, in addition to asking people to give the Orient House their cases, promised to demonstrate with them against the Interior Ministry’s policies.