SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Israel Stripped 140,000 Palestinians of Residency Rights, Document Reveals
Thousands of Palestinians who left the West Bank to work or study between 1967 and 1994 had residency rights revoked
May 11, 2011
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.
Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.
If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them "NLRs" - no longer resident - and their right to return was revoked.
"The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law," said Hamoked, an Israeli NGO that filed the freedom of information request.
Some of the 140,000 were later allowed to return, but an estimated 130,000 are still deemed NLRs. "I doubt there is a family in the West Bank that does not have a relative who lost their residency rights in this way," Dalia Kerstein of Hamoked said. Requests to extend residency rights while abroad nearly always went unanswered, she added.
Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator whose brother lost his residency rights after leaving to study in the US, described the policy as a war crime.
Israel was "engaging in a systematic policy of displacement ... to change the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territories", he said in a statement.
"This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension. We are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families."
The process began at the start of Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and ended in 1994 when the Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo accords.
However, the practice of revoking the residency rights of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has accelerated in recent years.
Following the annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel distributed identity cards giving residency status - not citizenship - to Palestinians living in the city. They were permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, but the vast majority refused on political grounds.
However, if they leave the city for more than seven years, their east Jerusalem residency rights are revoked. Israeli citizens are allowed to leave indefinitely without penalty.
Since 1995, Palestinians have also been required to prove their "centre of life" is in east Jerusalem or face having their residency rights revoked.
In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians had their east Jerusalem identity cards revoked, compared with 229 the previous year, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
Richard Falk, an investigator for the United Nations human rights council, described this as "the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians ... [which] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing".
In a recent high-profile case, the Palestinian owner of a bookshop at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem is facing deportation after having lost his residency rights. Munther Fahmi, 56, who left Jerusalem in 1973 for 20 years, has since been given a series of tourist visas which will no longer be renewed. Among the signatories to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay are the authors Ian McEwan, Roddy Doyle and Orhan Pamuk.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.
Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.
If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them "NLRs" - no longer resident - and their right to return was revoked.
"The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law," said Hamoked, an Israeli NGO that filed the freedom of information request.
Some of the 140,000 were later allowed to return, but an estimated 130,000 are still deemed NLRs. "I doubt there is a family in the West Bank that does not have a relative who lost their residency rights in this way," Dalia Kerstein of Hamoked said. Requests to extend residency rights while abroad nearly always went unanswered, she added.
Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator whose brother lost his residency rights after leaving to study in the US, described the policy as a war crime.
Israel was "engaging in a systematic policy of displacement ... to change the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territories", he said in a statement.
"This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension. We are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families."
The process began at the start of Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and ended in 1994 when the Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo accords.
However, the practice of revoking the residency rights of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has accelerated in recent years.
Following the annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel distributed identity cards giving residency status - not citizenship - to Palestinians living in the city. They were permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, but the vast majority refused on political grounds.
However, if they leave the city for more than seven years, their east Jerusalem residency rights are revoked. Israeli citizens are allowed to leave indefinitely without penalty.
Since 1995, Palestinians have also been required to prove their "centre of life" is in east Jerusalem or face having their residency rights revoked.
In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians had their east Jerusalem identity cards revoked, compared with 229 the previous year, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
Richard Falk, an investigator for the United Nations human rights council, described this as "the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians ... [which] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing".
In a recent high-profile case, the Palestinian owner of a bookshop at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem is facing deportation after having lost his residency rights. Munther Fahmi, 56, who left Jerusalem in 1973 for 20 years, has since been given a series of tourist visas which will no longer be renewed. Among the signatories to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay are the authors Ian McEwan, Roddy Doyle and Orhan Pamuk.
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.
Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.
If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them "NLRs" - no longer resident - and their right to return was revoked.
"The mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law," said Hamoked, an Israeli NGO that filed the freedom of information request.
Some of the 140,000 were later allowed to return, but an estimated 130,000 are still deemed NLRs. "I doubt there is a family in the West Bank that does not have a relative who lost their residency rights in this way," Dalia Kerstein of Hamoked said. Requests to extend residency rights while abroad nearly always went unanswered, she added.
Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator whose brother lost his residency rights after leaving to study in the US, described the policy as a war crime.
Israel was "engaging in a systematic policy of displacement ... to change the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territories", he said in a statement.
"This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension. We are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families."
The process began at the start of Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and ended in 1994 when the Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo accords.
However, the practice of revoking the residency rights of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has accelerated in recent years.
Following the annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel distributed identity cards giving residency status - not citizenship - to Palestinians living in the city. They were permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, but the vast majority refused on political grounds.
However, if they leave the city for more than seven years, their east Jerusalem residency rights are revoked. Israeli citizens are allowed to leave indefinitely without penalty.
Since 1995, Palestinians have also been required to prove their "centre of life" is in east Jerusalem or face having their residency rights revoked.
In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians had their east Jerusalem identity cards revoked, compared with 229 the previous year, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
Richard Falk, an investigator for the United Nations human rights council, described this as "the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians ... [which] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing".
In a recent high-profile case, the Palestinian owner of a bookshop at the American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem is facing deportation after having lost his residency rights. Munther Fahmi, 56, who left Jerusalem in 1973 for 20 years, has since been given a series of tourist visas which will no longer be renewed. Among the signatories to a petition demanding he be allowed to stay are the authors Ian McEwan, Roddy Doyle and Orhan Pamuk.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy