Call for Mobilization!

Israeli High Court Decision on ID Card Confiscation on 22 April 1999

Almost one year ago (6 April 1998), a group of Israeli lawyers and human rights organizations submitted their petition against the Interior Ministry’s policy of confiscating ID cards of Palestinian Jerusalemites. Working against a reality full of unfavorable legal precedents, the petitioners (Hotline, ACRI, PHR, AIC, DCI-Israel, Atty. Lea Tsemel) had carefully prepared their argument over a period of more than one year (for details see: ARTICLE 74/24, June 1998). One year later, on 22 April 1998, the Israeli High Court will give its verdict in what is likely to represent the last chance for challenging the policy of ID card confiscation in the Israeli legal system.

A High Court decision, which sets an end to the Interior Ministry’s policy of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, is needed more than ever. Irrespective of local and international protests, the Israeli Interior Ministry continues to confiscate ID cards of Palestinian Jerusalemites. According to official figures released recently, the number of ID cards confiscated in 1998 marks a record high since the 1996, when Israel first introduced this policy.

However, not only the ever increasing scope of ID card confiscation is a cause for concern, but also the act that more and more Israeli institutions and ministries have joint in coordinated action towards the implementation of the policy of ethnic cleansing. The core of this Israeli network is represented by the National Insurance Institute (NII), which – according to Israeli law – is authorized to conduct field investigations in order to determine whether applicants for public welfare services actually reside within Israel. The NII, based on a loose interpretation of its mandate, has been using the information gathered by its field workers in East Jerusalem not only to determine entitlement to NII services, which are conditioned by residency. The NII also passes its field reports on to the Interior Ministry, which then uses the NII data to decide whether or not Palestinian Jerusalemites are eligible for holding a Jerusalem ID card. Since the NII is also responsible for the administration of applications for Israeli state health insurance provided by the Ministry of Health, it is not surprising that also the Ministry of Health has begun to cancel Palestinian beneficiaries from its computer (al-Quds, 17-2-1999).

The Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing, based on increased sophistication and coordination among Israeli institutions, thus has come to combine deprival of public health and welfare services with ID card confiscation. This combined policy effects almost every sphere of life of Palestinian Jerusalemites, even before their ID cards are actually and physically confiscated by the Interior Ministry. It is time to prove to the Israeli authority and public that the forceful eviction of Palestinian Jerusalemites is neither possible nor permissible! The Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, is a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Successful mobilization against the renewed approval by the Israeli High Court of the policy of ID card confiscation will contribute – if not to a favorable decision by the court – also to prepare the ground for the special UN examination of Israeli violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention scheduled for June 1999.

The Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem calls for international support of its campaign towards the Israeli High Court decision on 22 April 1999 and the special UN session on Israeli violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention in June. In order to most effectively lobby the Israeli court, the Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem, in partnership with a growing number of human rights organizations (see list below), has organized actions on both the legal and the popular front. These events include a letter writing campaign, publication and disseminiation of the Palestine Housing Rights Movement report to the UN Committee on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights and the Committee’s findings (See Article 74, Issue no. 26], demonstrations, and involvement of international and domestic lawyers and judges.

Calendar:
Demonstration New Gate Park on April 14, 2-4pm.
Vigil at Israeli Supreme Court on April 22, the day of the court hearing.
Press Conference, April 22 at al-Hakawati theater.

Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem/Campaign to End ID Card Confiscation:
Addameer, Badil Resource Center, Citizen's Rights Center - Arab Thought Form, Freedom's Defense Center, Jerusalem Center for Women, Palestine Human Rights Information Center, Women's Affairs Technical Committee, Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling

In Partnership With:
al-Haq, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bat Shalom, B'tselem, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Defense for Children International, Hamoked, Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights, Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid, LAW, Palestinian Housing Rights Movement, Physicians for Human Rights

For further information contact the organizations listed above or: BADIL Resource Center.

SAMPLE LETTER
[your address]
[date]

Eli Suissa
Ministry of Interior
2 Kaplan Street
PO Box 6158
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91061
fax: (972) 2-670-1628

Your Excellency Eli Suissa:
On 22 April 1999, the Israeli Supreme Court will decide on the legality of Jerusalem ID card confiscation. This policy, implemented by the Interior Ministry, has lead to the forceful eviction of 2,083 Palestinian Jerusalemites from 1996 to 1998 according to official Israeli data.

We wish to express our deep concern over the policy of ID card confiscation in occupied Jerusalem and express our dismay at the very concept of Palestinians being made strangers in their hometown. We also express our alarm at the increasing number of ID cards confiscated in the past three years due to the implementation of the "center of life" policy in 1996.

We believe the policy of revoking the Jerusalem residency status of Palestinians, which engenders the forceful eviction of those Palestinian residents from Jerusalem, is discriminatory, unjust and contrary to international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention (art 49) and the Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (art. 12).

We strongly urge you to end the policy of ID card confiscation and to grant East Jerusalem Palestinian residents a status that cannot be terminated, to reinstate the status of those Palestinians whose residency rights were revoked, and to allow Palestinian families to be re-united.

Sincerely,
Name]

Please forward a copy of your letter to the Lobby and to:

Thierry Bechet
Head of Mission
EC Delegation to OPT
PO Box 22207
5 Sheikh Hussam Eddin Jarralah St.
Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem
fax: (972) 2-532-6249

Benjamin Netanyahu
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street
PO Box 187
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91061
fax: (972) 2-670-1628

Martin S. Indyk
Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
Office of Public Affairs, Rm. 6242
Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
USA
fax: (202) 647-7120