Israel expels record number of East Jerusalem Arabs

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel cancelled the East Jerusalem residence permits of a record number of Palestinians in 2006, effectively expelling them from the city, the human rights groups B'Tselem said Sunday.

A total of 1,363 Palestinians had their residence permits withdrawn last year compared with just 222 in 2005, the watchdog said, basing its figures on interior ministry statistics.

The figure exceeded even the 1997 total of 1,067, the previous highest since Israel occupied Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, and then unilaterally annexed it.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem have the status of permanent residents of Israel, the same status granted to foreigners who settle in the Jewish state.

"Israel treats Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem as immigrants, who live in their homes at the beneficence of the authorities and not by right," B'Tselem said.

"Treating these Palestinians as foreigners who entered Israel is astonishing, since it was Israel that entered East Jerusalem in 1967."

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E. J'lem residents lose civil status at rapid rate

<snip>

"The number of East Jerusalem residents whose permanent residency status has been revoked has surged by more than six times in one year, according to Interior Ministry data made available to B'Tselem, a human rights group. The ministry attributes this in part to "growing efficiency."

<snip>

"Permanent status grants East Jerusalem residents most of the privileges enjoyed by Israeli citizens. The status can be revoked for taking up residence in the Palestinian Authority or abroad.

The policy of mass revocations has been in place for more than a decade. It began in 1995, toward the end of Eli Suissa's tenure as director of the Jerusalem District at the Interior Ministry.

It heightened when he was appointed interior minister in 1996, when his party, Shas, joined the coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Suissa was instrumental in making it harder for East Jerusalem residents to acquire construction permits, causing a serious housing shortage among Arabs in the city. This forced many Jerusalem Arabs to seek housing elsewhere, losing their permanent residency status."

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[breakaleg]

1. How can they do that?

[acmavm]

2. The same way they can build their walls and take the land and the water

and bomb civilians on a beach.

[madrchsod]

4. how? who is going to stop them...

no one cares about the Palestinians in the middle east...

[Scurrilous]

3. Cementing Control: Israel's building in East Jerusalem could be a bar to future peace

(Saturday, May 26, 2007)

<snip>

"The view from Mervat Zayeha’s balcony is a portrait of Israel’s unceasing effort to solidify its control over East Jerusalem since the capture of the city’s Arab sector from Jordan 40 years ago.

On the edge of the Palestinian woman’s backyard, cranes and laborers are methodically building a big Israeli housing complex that will sit inside the East Jerusalem neighborhood known as Jabel Mukaber.

To the right is the towering concrete security barrier being built by Israel, which is dividing the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem - traditionally the focus of Palestinian life - from the Palestinian heartland of the West Bank.

Straight ahead, past the construction, the midday sun reflects off the golden stones of the Old City, the most feverishly disputed of all the areas contested between Palestinians and Israel.

Soon after Israel seized East Jerusalem in the lightning-fast 1967 Mideast War, it began a second, more methodical, offensive, which continues to this day. The goal is to unify the city and its holy sites under Jewish control. Instead of rifles, its weapons have been concrete and building stones."

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