Israel revoked residency of 4,577 Palestinians in East Jerusalem

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Israel stripped a record 4,577 Arabs of their residency rights in East Jerusalem in 2008, equaling almost 35 per cent of all such cases since the Jewish state took control of the area in 1967.

Israel's Interior Ministry revoked the residency of these East Jerusalem Arabs last year, 'Ha'aretz' daily reported.

Among the 4,577 Arabs deprived of their residency were 99 minors under the age of 18.

In the first 40 years of Israeli rule over East Jerusalem, the ministry deprived 8,558 Arabs of their residency rights, which is less than double the number of those who lost their permits in 2008 alone, the report said.

The ministry said the sharp increase in the numbers stem from the its decision to probe legal status of thousands of East Jerusalem residents in March and April, 2008.

[Source: Harinder Mishra, Press Trust of India]

For background: Legal status of East Jerusalem and its residents (B'Tselem)

Hebrew press: IOA confiscated 4,577 Jerusalemite IDs

[ 02/12/2009 - 09:07 AM ]


OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has withdrawn the IDs of 4,577 Palestinian inhabitants of occupied Jerusalem depriving them of the right of living in their city, Hebrew press reports said.

Hebrew daily Ha'aretz quoted a secret report by the European Union as saying that the Israeli interior ministry had accelerated the measure in the past year to 20 double the usual routine over the past 40 years.

The ministry alleged that the step was taken after conducting a large-scale survey during which it came to the conclusion that thousands of Palestinians with residence rights in Jerusalem were living outside it, which allowed withdrawing their IDs, the report elaborated.

The report said that Palestinians in Jerusalem are granted 200 construction permits per annum while their needs exceed 1,500 permits.

It pointed out that Silwan suburb in occupied Jerusalem was granted 20 construction permits since 1967.