JERUSALEM RESIDENCY LOSSES RISE

BBC NEWS
iddle_east/8390717.stm
2009/12/02 17:34:25 GMT

Israel stripped a record number of Palestinians of their right to
live in East Jerusalem last year, an Israeli rights group has said.

Some 4,570 people had their residency rights removed, more than a
third of the total number since Israel took control of East Jerusalem
in 1967.

Palestinians fear an attempt to reduce their presence in Jerusalem,
which both they and Israel claim as their capital.

Israel says most of those stripped of their rights were living abroad.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship
after Israel occupied the area in 1967 and later annexed it.

Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty, and were
instead given residency.

But, according to the Israeli rights organisation Hamoked, if these
Palestinians live abroad for seven years, or gain citizenship or
residency elsewhere, they lose their Israeli residency.

Hamoked obtained the figures from the Interior Ministry using the
Freedom of Information Act.

The organisation said that some of those who had lost their citizenship
may now be stateless, or may not even be aware they have lost their
residency.

Family visits and students studying abroad would be affected, it said.

" The state of Israel pays billions of shekels a year in stipends
to people who don’t even live here " Meir Sheetrit Former interior
minister

Hamoked executive director Dalia Kerstein said the phenomenon had
"reached frightening dimensions".

Israel’s interior ministry said it had carried out a "comprehensive
check" that people listed as residents of Israel had their lives
centred in the country, and many were found to be living abroad.

Former Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who initiated the
survey, told the BBC "it is a very normal, regular idea that people who
are not living here for a long time" are not supposed to be residents.

He said those who had appealed had been approved to stay.

"The state of Israel pays billions of shekels a year in stipends to
people who don’t even live here," he told Haaretz.

The figures come amid Palestinian fears that Israel is trying to
increase its control over East Jerusalem and cut it off from the West
Bank, through the building of the West Bank barrier, house demolitions
and evictions.

The right-leaning government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu maintains that Jerusalem is Israel’s "eternal, undivided
capital".

But it says recent demolitions and evictions are simply issues of
law enforcement.

On Tuesday, a draft document leaked to Haaretz suggested the EU was
considering hardening its stance on the city.

According to the newspaper, the document called for East Jerusalem
to become the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The EU has never recognised Israel’s annexation of the east of the
city, which is illegal under international law.

Its formal position has been that the city’s status is to be decided
in negotiations, although some EU leaders have called for it to be
a future shared capital.

Israel’s foreign ministry reacted angrily to the reports, saying the
apparent move by Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, "harms the
European Union’s ability to take part as a significant mediator…

between Israel and the Palestinians".

It said the EU should be pressuring the Palestinians to return to
the negotiating table, but the step would have "the opposite effect."

About a third of Jerusalem’s residents – a quarter of a million
people – are Palestinians with Israeli residency or Israeli-Arabs,
who have Israeli citizenship.

Israel’s annexation of the east of the city has never been recognised
by the international community.