Israel admits it covertly canceled residency status of 140,000 Palestinians
Document obtained by Haaretz reveals that between 1967 and 1994 many Palestinians traveling abroad were stripped of residency status, allegedly without warning.
By Akiva EldarIsrael has used a covert procedure to cancel the residency status of 140,000 West Bank Palestinians between 1967 and 1994, the legal advisor for the Judea and Samaria Justice Ministry's office admits, in a new document obtained by Haaretz. The document was written after the Center for the Defense of the Individual filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law.
The document states that the procedure was used on Palestinian residents of the West Bank who traveled abroad between 1967 and 1994. From the occupation of the West Bank until the signing of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians who wished to travel abroad via Jordan were ordered to leave their ID cards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing.
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Israeli soldier checks Palestinians' identification. |
| Photo by: Baz Ratner |
They exchanged their ID cards for a card allowing them to cross. The card was valid for three years and could be renewed three times, each time adding another year.
If a Palestinian did not return within six months of the card's expiration, thier documents would be sent to the regional census supervisor. Residents who failed to return on time were registered as NLRs - no longer residents. The document makes no mention of any warning or information that the Palestinians received about the process.
Palestinians could still return in the first six months after their cards expired, or appeal to an exemptions committee.
The Center for the Defense of the Individual said yesterday it knew that a clear procedure was in place, but the details and the number of Palestinians denied their right to return remained classified. A former head of the Civil Administration in the 1990s was surprised to hear of the procedure when contacted by Haaretz.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. (res. ) Danny Rothschild, who served as coordinator of government activities in the territories from 1991 to 1995, said he was completely unaware of the procedure, even though it was in use during his term. "If even I wasn't told of the procedure, one may infer that neither were residents of the occupied territories," he said.
The Central Bureau of Statistics says the West Bank's Palestinian population amounted to 1.05 million in 1994, which means the population would have been greater by about 14 percent if it weren't for the procedure.
By contrast, Palestinians who immigrated from the West Bank after the Palestinian Authority was set up retained residency rights even if they did not return for years.
Today, a similar procedure is still in place for residents of East Jerusalem who hold Israeli ID cards; they lose their right to return if they have been abroad for seven years.
Palestinians who found themselves "no longer residents" include students who graduated from foreign universities, businessmen and laborers who left for work in the Gulf. Over the years, many of them have started families, so the number of these Palestinians and their descendants is probably in the hundreds of thousands, even if some have died.
Also, several thousands Palestinians with close links to the Palestinian Authority were allowed to return over the years, as did a number of Palestinians whose cases were upheld by the joint committee for restoration of Palestinian ID cards. As of today, 130,000 Palestinians are listed as "no longer residents."
Among them is the brother of the Palestinians' chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. Erekat's brother left for studies in the United States and was not allowed to come back; he still lives in California.
Erekat told Haaretz he had learned from his brother's experience, and when he himself left for studies abroad, he made sure to visit home from time to time so as not to lose his right to return.
The regulation's existence was discovered by the Center for the Defense of the Individual by pure chance, while it was looking into the case of a West Bank resident imprisoned in Israel.
The Civil Administration told the prisoner's family his ID card was "inactive." After a request for a clarification, Israel's legal adviser for Judea and Samaria said this was a misapplication of a certain policy by the census supervisor in the occupied territories.
The adviser added that three residents were mistakenly defined as no longer residents while in prison or in detention, and that their residency had now been restored. He wrote that their status had been changed not because of a policy but because of a technical error, without any connection to their imprisonment.
The Center for the Defense of the Individual said that "mass withdrawal of residency rights from tens of thousands of West Bank residents, tantamount to permanent exile from their homeland, remains an illegitimate demographic policy and a grave violation of international law."
It noted that an unknown number of Gaza residents had lost residency rights in a similar manner, but that the exact number was still a secret the center vowed to uncover. "The State of Israel should fix the ongoing wrong at once, restore residency rights to all affected Palestinians and allow them and their families to return to their homeland," the center said.
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How can I have residency status if I am not a resident of a certain place? I come from another country and I held residency in a certain city there. When I moved to Israel, I changed my residency status to "abroad". When I returned for a couple of months to my place of origin, I became sick and needed medical attention. Out of nowhere, I was suddenly told that I am not eligible for medical care in my home town because I am registered for abroad. How is Israel any different? My country of origin is in Europe.
My respect for Israel and its people keep getting lower.
"I didn't know", uttered by a man in senior military rank. This is sick and evokes very bad memories ......
After 67 war Ben Gurion warned Israel to pull out of west bank, that it was "a swamp that will pull us down". Just reading the rationalizations in the comments showed how morally we have been corrupted by occupation and how our dreams have turned into a giant nightmare.
how many of the people who residence got revoked actually tried to come back and couldn't? they were gone 3.5 years, after all. i'm not saying that the behavior was excusable, but context has some value. also, this is beofre 1994, when it was pretty much open war between israel and plo
On its 63rd birthday, Israel's leaders remain committed to injustice and ethnic cleansing. The complacent majority is yet to realize how this will negatively impact Israel and Israeli society in the not-so-distant future as military might is proving futile!
Jews were forced out of Arab lands, and Arabs were forced out (much more gently) of Judea and Samaria.
An admission that the West Bank and Gaza are not Israeli lands but in fact are Palestinian lands as referred to the residents of these lands by Maj. Gen. (res. ) Danny Rothschild, as "residents of the occupied territories". Therefore, Israel can not strip any Palestinian of residency status, since even by Israeli admission, these are occupied territories, which are in fact Palestinian lands.
Even if you are born in a country like Switzerland...if you are not a citizen, then you need to renew your residency papers regulalry. Making sure hat they are always valid is your own repsonsibility. If long-term residents, including those who are born in the country wish to acquire citizenship, then they canapply for naturaliation and their problem is solved.
Don't make it seem as if this is fair and a normal thing for countries to do. if a Jew left the West bank and lived in New york for 3 years, would his residency permit be revoked? Give me a break.
Religion and nationality are 2 differents things. Only in Soviet Union Jewish was a nationality. In arab lands the Jews had the Dhimmis status.
If only Israel would recognize "Palestine" the whole world can sing kumbayah. Doesn't matter that Hamas will continue its terror war against Israel, that al-Qaeda will continue its terror war against the entire non-Muslim world, that Islamic radicalism is spreading like a cancer, that Iran continues its quest for nuclear weapons, that country after country is falling to internal unrest... If only Israel capituales to Arab demands, it will solve everything. Right.
the people responsible for this policy should have been more humane. who gave them the right to abuse the rights of indgenous peace loving residents. the policy makers have started a war agains peace lovers, and that is very bad.
I would do the very same to my enemies !
Why are you talking about enemies? Not a very friendly attitude - towards people who have decided to e.g. study or work abroad. Same kind of policy (of Israeli authorities) creates big problems for those Palestinians, who live in Jerusalem, but for various reasons have to spend time elsewhere on the West Bank - or abroad. So far I haven't seen any facts, if this kind of restrictive "residency rules" are applied to other Israelis (jews) too. And, that makes things presented in this piece of news very dubious.
your enemies are the Europeans that persecuted jews and put them in israel as a way to get rid of them.
One might ponder on who is actually the enemy here, the occupied or the occupier?
Oh my, this is not good at all. People should be able to study and work abroad without worrying about being prevented from coming home again. But bad policies always seem to be dragged into the light of day sooner or later. This one definitely needs fixing...
Are people that dumb that when they are required to renew there visa's every 6 months or lose residency atleast here in Canada, and some how think the Palestinians have been wronged under the exact same law,,,.
You do not seem to understand the facts in this article.
They live in their own land. In their homes. Those homes just happen to be occupied by a foreign nation. And it is clearly stated that an occupying nation doesn't have the right to change the demographics of the territory it is occupying. That is something Israel has been doing for decades, both by illegal settlments and, it seems, outhright expulsion of the native residents. Take, for example, if someone occupied Canada. You went to study in France. After seven years you finish your studies and wish to return. Only problem is that now your citizenship and residency has been revoked by the occupational force because you haven't been living at your home for seven years. That is what is happening here, Josh. Palestinians are being driven from their homes, yet again.
is their land they dont need a visa!!!
But of course that doesn't apply to Palestinians...
bit surely the less palestinian terror attacks there are , the sooner peace will come
there is no soverign state of palestine. at the moment the palestinians are guests of the israelis and have to behave according to the law
this is a beautiful statement and based on this you can indeed do what you want. Deny someone an admistrative right and you can handle him the best suitable way for yourself. Well done, legal!
Learn the facts before posting your ignorance.
Nothing special. In Switzerland too a foreigner-resident leaving the country for more than six months is striped from the residency rights. In such case a foreigner is someone which doesn't have the swiss nationality.
Palestinians are natives, their ascendants were born there. Don't compare them with foreigners
most came after the zionist movement started
they are long staying guests, who israel has been very hospitable to
That says it all ... I don't want to go further into Swiss laws ...
Remember that deal a year ago or so, when the IDF decided it was no longer going to recognize PA issued residency ID's, and was going to start rounding up and expelling any Pals who didn't have an Israeli issued ID?
and now there's taxation without anything at all.
And how many 2,000 year old Jews do you know?
go to Taiwan or any Asian location, work there for a while and then leave for some months or year, I want to see if they let you in...... temporary residence or immigrant status does not give citizenship status
Palestinians are the natives! You're comparing natives status with immigrants' status ? Lol totally irrelevant
These people were conquered residents. If a Jew leaves Israel for a thousand years and has a foreign nationality, or even two or three, Israel's door is open. If an Arab conquered resident whose family has been living here for a thousand years leaves Israel, Israel's door slams shut after six months.
sad sad state
Leave for seven years, without reapplying. Then you have six months. Then you have other recourse. Not the best policy. But u guys exagerrate so much. Just compare it to what israels neighbor's government is doing.
"just compare it to what israels neighbor's government is doing." and what exactly is it doing?
Shooting anti-government protesters in the streets, Mimi! Is that better or worse than denying people identity cards when they could also get a Jordanian passport, or is Israel still worse than Syria? Or don't you bother following world news, just write anti-Israel talkbacks for a living?
So just because there was no evidence of Israel contacting residents, this somehow means they didn't? One has to look past the biased style of writing and pick up on key words to have a more objective view (e.g. allegedly). Not to mention most of the posters hear are reading these stories with Israel-biased lenses on anyway. So let me clarify, I personally know of a family that moved from the West Bank abroad. He owned a house. He left that house behind for many, many years. The Israeli government DID contact him and let him know that if he didn't come back to lay claim, he would lose his residence. They even gave him an outlet to appeal once the deadline passed. This is a real world example (read: not allegedly).
Thank you for posting this. It's not fueling extremism. It's not inciting hatred. It's not promoting terrorism, it's not about the right and left. It's showing the truth. To us, the terrorism, hatred and extremism is from those who deny the indigenous Palestinian people the right to live in their own land not from those who ask for it.
My husband lived in the Uk for 7 years and returned to the West Bank every year. After 6 years he was told that his ID had been revoked which menat he was stuck in the UK with no citizenship at all. He was issued with a British Travel \document in order to return, and after much difficulty, and many times being told that he could have the ID back if he gave information to the Civil Administration (not "civil" at all of course!) he finally got it back with the help of an Israeli lawyer.
It is hard to understand why Israel signed and ratified Geneva IV. It ignores and violates it so often.
Yes, just another day in Israel's meticulously planned encroachment. The list is as endless as it is diverse and ingenious. Time. Time my friends... like Einstein said, for every action there's a reaction. Time.
Newton's 3rd law of motion: “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions.” But such laws can be turned upside down where large pressures and potential energies exist, such as a pebble starting an avalanche. Similar pressures and potentials exist in social and political situations.
Newton: Don't mix Newtonian Physics with Chaos Theory...
This article honors the birthday and asks to reflect on the consequences.
The more anti-semetism grows, the less people care and it is all because of the zionist mentality. Pity the non zionist, normal thinking Israeli and Jew for being cast in the same mold as their vicious brothers and sisters in arms.
Haaretz is not a non-zionist paper. There are not few zionist Israelis who are against such a policy. There are zionist factions that protest against such a policy. Do not attack the wrong people.
D: He is not attacking the wrong people, he is just mixed up about zionism. I'm sure most do not know that true zionism has been hijacked by these vultures and madmen.
According to the article, the exit cards were valid for three years and could be extended three times. What do people not understand about an expiration date - and applying for extensions?
What do people not understand about 2000 years being a period of definate absence? On what grounds do YOU give yourself the legal right of ownership now ? and a Palestinian who was born there only needs to be absent for three years to lose his place. Staggering. Beacon indeed. You're mere criminal squatters.
Not quite sure where Haaretz does it research but the people being referred to are either Jordanians or British. Jordan held control over the area between 1948 and 1967. Prior to that it was held by the British. If you want to go back 2000 years it was held by the Israelis, at least until the Romans occupied Israel and took control. But, as far as any history book will tell you, there have never been "palestinians" there, unless you are of course referring to the Philistine-descendants of greek fisherman who once inhabited a small area near Gaza during the time of the Israeli monarchy over 2500 years ago.
Your books will deny the existence of the Palestinians and will spread nothing but lies for a simple reason: If the truth is openly stated, then zionism will lose all its adherents because it is wrong what has been done to the Palestinians . Im curious, does your history books say that the 1.5 million persons in gaza and 3.5 million in the West Bank are british or jordanians too ?
show me the history book that speaks about "Israelis" 2000 years ago. Please. That would be a interesting discovery.
Actually, my father, who was born in Hebron, had a Palestine Passport until the State of Israel was created. He is a Jew and is now, of course, an Israeli. The Palestinian Arabs want to create their own State and this began in the 1960's. Israel has said it wants this (the two-state solution) but this will only happen when the Palestinian Arabs embrace non-violence and negotiations as the path.
and declared war to the Jewish democratic state.
This is not the age of Charlemagne or El Cid. The right of conquest was abolished. Israel even signed a treaty and is violating that treaty. The occupied territories are occupied, not Israel. Israel hasn't even pretended to annex the land or the people. Why can't Israel adhere to a treaty it signed and ratified?
And they will be treated the same way as they treated the Palestinians. It may be in 10 years, or 100 years. They would only have themselves to blame
Israel was denied the right to exist, we are still at war... when the war will end everyone will be happy. well i doubt Jews will go back to the countries they were expelled from: Egypt, Iraq, Syrya, Yemen, Morocco, and few others.
As a Palestinian, I hope that this doesn't happen. I don't believe in all that eye for eye BS.Two wrongs do not lead to a right! I hope that one day, maybe in 10 years or in 100 we will all live here (Palestine/Israel) in freedom and with dignity!
We have to live with these people all over the World. Why would we want to make enemies by denying them equal rights?
If we treated all out jewish population like this. This is disgusting and shameful.
Every country has its own visa system. You over-stay, you lose your rights. How long can the Pals keep claiming "no-one told me". If I was taking my family out of the country I would know to the day when I had to touch base to maintain my citizenship. Load of garbage, more game playing and Israel blame. The fact is most of them wanted out of the "occupier" until they found it wasn't all rosy elswhere.
this is a mass deportation, personally know a few palestinians who lost their chance of going back. once an israeli leaves for 4 years and gets his passport revoked, then this would be fair. however the goal is not to push out the jews, its to push out the arabs. thats pure racism.
"Every country has its own visa system. You over-stay, you lose your rights." Dude, these are people who were BORN in the West Bank, and who then went overseas for more than three years. It isn't a case of someone coming INTO the West Bank and then overstaying their welcome. Sheesh.
these palestinians were born in the west bank, their parents and grand parents were born in the west bank, it is their homeland, and they were not just residents or tourists there... the whole process is to replace them with settlers who were exported from here and there and belong elsewhere.
pathetic attempt to cover up anything I have heard. If that was true, how come this Visa policies are only pals but Jews who leave Israel never have to worry about this law? Better yet, they don't even have to be born or live there but they can still claim citizenship.
since should u even need residency for a place that ur family has been in for generations?
So could you please expand your wisdom and try to reconcile for us how Jews are perpetually entitled to return to the same land and to automatic citizenship after over 2000 years of absence?
A visa-system is for people visiting a country as far as i know. If you stay too long inside a country that is not your own, you can be expelled. Nowhere will you lose your right to come back after you've been out of the country for too long. I hold the passport of the country of my parents origin and I could immediately move there if I wanted, even though I've never lived there in my life. I guess you must be living in the US, where people usually don't travel abroad.
As a Canadian you have to renew your travel visas every 6 months or lose your citizenship, I'm sure it's the same in the states as well,,,
In the US, citizenship is a Constitutional right. Hence it is controversial. Bureaucrats cannot take it away.
is appilcable for everyone regardless of ethnicity or religion, but in this isutation this is only and emphasis for non-jews Arabs...
It's enough to look at to the Eurpean democracies. They preach democracy, still they are the great facists. To day in France muslim womans can not ware burkas, in Swiss the mosques could not have minaretts. Tthe percentage of the minorities still is under 5 percent of the total population. I'am sure as my name if the minorities population in these countries could reach to %20 of total population like Israel, you'll see what kind of antidemocratic precautions they would take. It is not a proheshy and I am sure that you would criticze your countries like you had criticized for the antidemocratic actions that havebeen taken in your countries today and criticize like Israel what you are doing today.
Europe has a bad history, but they are not occupiers today. They still have bad policy and I fight it.
the great fascists eh? What 5% minorities are you talking about? Switzerland has 22% foreigners, Luxembourg even 43% and there are many more lines of divisions in these societies, defining one or another group as minorities. Antidemocratic laws? far from it! why? because these countries are actually little corrupt democracies with separation of power
who was here first
European countries are independant countries. What they do within their own borders is their issue. Dont compare it to what Israel does to an occupied land that is not theirs. Very simple sir!
Let me tell you first of all in Israel also the minorities has the right to vote and right to be elected, as full rights of Israeli as Jew citizends. How many chosen minority members has your parliement ?
Don't make me laugh. Explain me why the Swiss goverment bans to build the minarrets.
Thank you for remind us that these are occupied lands. We don't either choose to occupy. They've started a war and they loose. There is only one law and it is the occupation law. If Arabs won the game there would be no Jews left in Israel today.
Thank you for remind us that these are occupied lands. We don't either choose to occupy. They've started a war and they loose. There is only one law and it is the occupation law. If Arabs won the game there would be no Jews left in Israel today.
It can't possibly be: "this is not anti-democratic because other countries also do anti-democratic things". I mean even a toddler could rip that logic to shreds...
The argue is merely every country issues the laws acording to their needs. We are not living in an ideal world. My saying is if you were living here, you would issue laws that you would search the current Israeli laws like a candle in the dark. If you are issuing to ban burkas, extrapolate what kind of laws you would issue if you were under the constant threat of war.
In Europe we used to be under a constant threat of war. We took care of that threat by making peace with our enemies. This however only came to pass after some very long and bloody wars, it is sad to see that foolish initial inaction repeated. For the record we also have a history of racist scapegoating and oppression, it is even more disturbing to see those practices repeated.
Thank you for pubblicizing this injustice. !
Need one say more? And this is a action of a state not some rogue organization.....
"The concept of the rights of man collapsed in ruins as soon as those who professed it found themselves for the first time before men who had truly lost every other specific quality and connection except for the mere fact of being humans." [Hannah Arendt 1943].
Are
which was also coupled with the 'absentee owner law" in order to grab up their land once they lost citizenship! And I wouldn't be surprised if it's STILL going on in one form or another - by way of an insurmountable level of 'red tape'! They don't miss a trick!
It IS still going on right now. Farmers, businessmen, students, patients, landowners, laborers etc etc etc; Palestinians have to be very very careful how they plan their foreign excursions. It just doesn't happen in quite the same numbers anymore. But that doesn't matter, because many new methods are in place these days to limit the Palestinian populations; such as the appropriation of settlement lands, the re-asignments of lands as State lands or security lands etc. Oh, and there's always the off chance you might get wiped of the face of the earth by an errant army action. Yep, they Do Not miss a trick
'...which means the population would have been greater by about 14 percent if it weren't for the procedure. ' This would only be true if all the Palestinians who left would have returned if only they could have returned. Given that the procedure only went into effect if a Palestinian left and let his permit lapse, I doubt if that was the case. I'm no friend of Israel, but I imagine most of the Palestinians in question didn't WANT to return. Maybe divide that number by four?
The problem was that the ID was taken at the Bridge. How many were "lost" by the Israeli's, or simply were not given back>? I have heard of many, many Palestinians who lost their ID's in this way. The good news is that nowadays they can mostly get it back through the PA.
I guess this is the democracy they are so keen to promote
There is no corruption like Israeli corruption.
To announce this on your countries birthday shows a streak of nastiness. Where is the Democracy ... Justice ... civility ... Shame on the House of Israel
Arabs who no longer were residents forfeited their residency status. The same rule exists in most nations. I am sure these Arabs found nice lives to live outside of Israel.
On exactly what do you base your notion that most nations have rules that strip people of their citizenship if they don't visit the country for three years? I very much doubt this is the case, in fact I believe that it is fairly uncommon for democratic countries to have any such policy.
This is a lie and you know that.
No state has the right to deny anybody the right to return to one's homeland, much less an occupation force. Anybody in the world can leave their countries for as long as they want and they will never be prevented from returning. Only in Israel.
Which 'most nations' would they be? I was born in Europe, I haven't lived there most of my adult life, I remain a European. I can't think of another country on earth where this rule is applied. Replace 'most nations' with 'no other nation'. We are not talking about resident aliens or immigrants, but the local indigenous population.
there their whole life, but they can claim residency and citizenship? The meaning of democracy is same rights and equality for all.
Where else in the world is the population deprived of citixzenship of the land in which they were born? Not just a few, buy the way, but a whole nation! They didn't wwant to become Israeli's -far from it! By contrast of course, thousands of Jews from countries all over the globe were welcomed with open arms to become immediate citizens of the land taken away from the Palestinians.
Of course you can't, because only the Governement of Israel enforces such blind injustice.
The only time in the western nations that this happens is if the citizen takes up citizenship in host country and give up thier original passport. My sister and daughter live abroad 20years and 10years respectively but have never given up citizenship. And certainly not denied that right.
he just displays the sort of ignorance that comes from spending one's days nodding over some holy book
The turks living south of Cyprus were deprived of their residency status. The greeks living north of Cyprus were deprived of their residency status Not to mention the georgians in part of Georgia
In USA, if you leave and do not return for a year while permanent resident, your residency is automatically revoked.
Not to people *born* there. So no, it is not normal.
One or two might want to come back. Absolute majority will not.
Did the preconditions at the time state that you were allowed to be absent for nine years with no notification. You talk about ethnic cleansing but did you follow the rules? If not you have no right to complain. If I move to Ethiopia and ignore US regulations there is no chance I could walk back in the door saying "honey I'm home".
No BS, plenty of reseach, no metaphors, and facts that speak for themselves.
and they lied for so many years...
Everything is fair in love and war. If the ger toshav don't like the harsh treatment, let them return to their countrymen in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Moab, Arabia, etc...
you speak the same core language doesn't make one a countrymen of another... people speak English in USA and Britian does that mean USA can kick people out and say go to your countrymen... nice try to hasbara. Pals who were forced to leave have their countrymen in Israel/Palestinian Terr. whether they are Arabs Muslims Christian, Jews... regardless
Jewish residents can return to their U.S, Russia, Africa ... Contrary to your lies, the land was inhabited for hundreds of years, by people who were moslems, Christians or Jews..
If that's your philosophy, I could easily say he same applied to, let's say, the German's treatment of the jews in and before WW2. After all, all's fair in love and war, no ?