Occupied East Jerusalem – As more Arab countries normalize relations with Israel, they push for a “silent transfer” policy – a complex system that denies Palestinians residency in occupied East Jerusalem, evictions from building demolitions, barriers to obtaining building permits and raising taxes. Aim with. .
Palestinian researcher Mansour Manasra notes that Israel began this policy of transferring Palestinians almost to East Jerusalem after the 1967 war and the subsequent occupation of the eastern part of the city.
The policy continues to this day with the goal of dominating East Jerusalem.
Land allotments for Jewish settlements have been made since 1968 around East Jerusalem and in Palestinian neighborhoods such as in the middle of the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City and beyond, in Seth Jarrah, Silvan, Ras al-Amoud, and Abu Tur.
After the June 1967 war, Israel imposed Israeli law on East Jerusalem and granted Palestinian “permanent resident” status. However, in effect, it is a delicate one. Bethlehem, the Israeli human rights information center in the occupied Palestinian territories, describes the situation as “accepting foreign nationals wishing to live in Israel”, except that Palestinians are indigenous to the land.
Palestine Palestinians in East Jerusalem do not have the right to automatic Israeli citizenship or are issued Palestinian passports by the Palestinian Authority (PA). They are usually able to obtain temporary Jordanian and Israeli travel documents.
Israel has managed to evacuate more than 14,200 Palestinians from East Jerusalem since 1967, granting the Palestinians a fragile status in East Jerusalem. These measures are similar to the practice of aggressive house-breaking.
Demolition of homes on the West Bank did not stop despite the coronavirus epidemic.
According to the United Nations, the number of people displaced since January-August 2020 has nearly quadrupled, and the number of structures targeted by demolition or seizure has increased by 55 percent compared to a year earlier.
In East Jerusalem, 24 buildings were demolished last month after demolition orders were issued by the Jerusalem Municipality, half of them by their owners.
The status of “permanent residence” is maintained as long as there is a physical presence in the Palestinian city. However, in some cases, the Israeli authorities withdraw the status of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem as a compensation measure because they are politically dissatisfied. Israel’s search for Palestinian Palestinian activists is widespread and does not exclude any group.
The most recent case is that of 35-year-old Salah Hammauri, a lawyer and activist. Israeli Interior Minister Arya Derry says Salah is a member of the Palestine Front for Palestine Liberation Palestine (PFLP). Israel outlawed the group and wanted it out of the country.
In some cases, Israeli authorities revoke the stay of spouses of political activists as punishment. Shadi Motour, a Fatah member from East Jerusalem, is currently on trial in Israeli courts for living in his wife’s home in East Jerusalem. It is native to the west coast.
In 2010, Israel revoked the Jerusalem residency of four senior members of Hamas – three of whom were elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006 and served as a cabinet minister – posing a threat to the state. Three are currently living in Ramallah and one is in administrative detention. The trial is set to begin on October 26 in the Israeli High Court.
In some cases, Israel does not issue a residency ID for a child whose father is from Jerusalem and whose mother is from the West Bank.
International law clearly condemns the forcible transfer of citizens.
“Ultimately our decision is to stay in this city,” says Hemouri.
Interactive: Palestine / West Bank Illegal Settlements – 112 companiesIn early September, he was called by Israeli police and informed of the Israeli Interior Minister’s intention to cancel his Jerusalem residence.
“I was told that I was a threat to the state and that I was associated with the Liberation Front of Palestine,” he said.
A French citizen, Hemouri was born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian father and a French mother. The family broke up in 2017, when Israel banned his wife, Elsa, who is also a French citizen and pregnant at the time, from entering the country. The reason was said to be based on a secret file that Israel had.
Hemouri expects Israel to deport him from France after the formalities of his residence are revoked. The French government, in its response, called on Israel to allow Hemouri to continue living in Jerusalem.
“Mr. Salah Hammouri was born in Jerusalem and should be able to live a normal life where he lives,” he said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Hemouri of being a “senior operative” of the terrorist organization and of continuing to engage in “hostile activity” against the state of Israel.
A solidarity campaign by Hemouri seeking the right to retain his Jerusalem residency is now underway in France, and French diplomats in Jerusalem are currently negotiating with Israeli officials to reverse his decision. He wants to challenge the case to withdraw his residence in court.
Hammouri spent more than eight years in Israeli prisons during various periods. In 2011, at the end of a seven-year prison sentence, he was released in a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel (known as the Shalit deal).
“Under international law, revoking a residency is illegal,” Sahar Francis, director of the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, also known as Adimir, told Al Jazeera.
“The Occupied Territories have no right to cancel the residency of protected people under the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is called forcible transfer and forcible transfer is prohibited, “said Francis.
The PFLP first opposed the Ords Slow Accord in 1993 but has since come to accept a two-state solution. However, in 2010 he signaled to the PLO to end negotiations with Israel and insisted that only a one-state settlement was possible for Palestinians and Jews.
“I see a very dark horizon,” says Khaled Abu Araf, a former PA minister-led.
“Israel will invest in the recent local and regional developments of normalization and the result will be the expulsion of the inhabitants of the West Bank and the improvement of the situation of the Palestinians of 1948.”
Abu Arafah served as Minister of Jerusalem Affairs between March 2006 and March 2007 in Ismail Haniyeh’s government, formed after Hamas won a majority of seats in the 2006 parliamentary elections.
Two months after the formation of the Palestinian government, Israeli police notified three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and cabinet minister Abu Arafah from Jerusalem that they had 30 days left to resign or their residency status would be revoked.
The Israeli police’s threat was denied and the four went to court to fight the Interior Ministry’s ultimatum.
On June 29, 2006, Israeli police launched a massive arrest operation, targeting 45 newly elected PLC members and 10 cabinet ministers. Members of the Jerusalem PLC, Muhammad Abu Ter, Muhammad Tota, Ahmed Aten and Abu Arafeh, were arrested. Israel accused him of being associated with the “reform and change” list, which was linked to the Islamic movement Hamas.
Abu Arafeh was sentenced to 27 months in prison and released in September 2008. Abu Ter and Totah were sentenced to lengthy sentences and were not released until May 2010.
On June 1, 2010, Israeli police re-summoned the man. This time he was ordered to surrender his Jerusalem ID and was given a month to leave Israel.
As the period was coming to an end, Israeli police arrested Abu Ter.
Muhammad Tota, Ahmed Atten and Khaled Abu Arafah in 2010 while sheltering in the ICRC building in East Jerusalem. [File]
Abu Arafeh, Atunun and Totah, feeling the impending arrest, took refuge in the building of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. His stay lasted 19 months; Living in a tent inside the campus. Eventually, Israeli police stormed the building and arrested the three men.
He was accused of belonging to a “terrorist group” and holding senior positions in the Hamas movement, as well as inciting the state of Israel. He was sentenced to two years in prison. After separation, they settled in Ramallah.
“Away from al-Quds, I feel unfamiliar, very deprived,” Abu Arafeh lamented about his situation.
Abu Arafeh’s family lives in East Jerusalem. “I live in Ramallah and they live in Al-Quds,” Abu Arafeh told Al Jazeera. “They visit every week and then go back home.”
Eaton is currently in administrative detention, his fourth since 2014.
In 2018, the Israeli High Court ruled that the decision to revoke the Interior Ministry’s residency status was illegal because there were no laws to support it. However, he gave the Home Ministry six months to go to the Knesset to legislate. The Knesset has passed a law allowing the abolition of residences for individuals not considered loyal to the state of Israel.
To date, four Palestinians have no credentials to cross Israeli checkpoints on the West Bank. The only document they were able to obtain was a driving license from the PA, but only after approval by the Israeli army.
Because they do not have IDs, they rarely venture outside Ramallah for fear of being stuck at an Israeli checkpoint and arrested.
The four appealed the High Court ruling and demanded that Israel provide them with alternative accommodation so they could live legally in the West Bank. A court hearing is set for October 26, but Abu Arafah does not expect a verdict.
“We do not expect a decision; The business authorities are using the time against us.
A Palestinian woman who met 24-year-old J.A. He was born in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Her father is from East Jerusalem and has a Jerusalem ID. But his mother is from Bethlehem and has an ID card issued by the PA.
The Israeli Interior Ministry has rejected all requests to give JA an ID card because he was born in the West Bank. PA also did not provide an ID card because his father has a Jerusalem ID.
So at the moment it has no documents at all. Due to this situation J.A. There are endless problems with school enrollment, finding employment, opening a bank account and other basic necessities. She has never traveled.
JA has now sued the Israeli Interior Ministry in an attempt to obtain legal residences.
