Center for the Defence of the Individual - Israel continues its "quiet deportation" policy: in 2010, the Ministry of Interior revoked the residency of 191 East Jerusalem Palestinians
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
31.07.2011

Israel continues its "quiet deportation" policy: in 2010, the Ministry of Interior revoked the residency of 191 East Jerusalem Palestinians

On March 3, 2011, HaMoked submitted an application to the Ministry of Interior under the Freedom of Information Act, for information on revocations of status of East Jerusalem residents in 2008. The application was sent as part of HaMoked's on going campaign to stop the Israeli policy of the "quiet deportation" implemented against East Jerusalem residents.

The response of the Ministry of Interior, arrived four months later – past the allotted time for reply, yet exceptionally without requiring HaMoked to petition the court – to informed that in 2010, Israel revoked the residency of 191 Palestinian from East Jerusalem, of them 102 women and 8 minors. Furthermore, it informed that in 2010, Israel "reinstated" the permanent status of 67 East Jerusalem Palestinians.

Note, in April 2011, HaMoked and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ), demanding to stop the policy of revoking the status of East Jerusalem residents based on prolonged residency abroad, or acquisition of foreign status. The organizations asserted that the status of the East Jerusalem residents is unlike any other status of any other resident – the territory in question had been annexed by Israel, its inhabitants compelled to become permanent Israeli residents, and so their status cannot be revoked. The organizations added further that under the norms of international law, East Jerusalem is an occupied territory held under belligerent occupation, its residents are protected persons, entitled to the protections guaranteed under international humanitarian law.

HaMoked reaffirms its demand concerning the East Jerusalem residents, for whom this piece of earth is home, that a clear stipulation be made to the effect that their permanent residency visas cannot expire even following extended periods of living abroad or the acquisition of status in another country.