Posted on 12/03/2003 9:51:04 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
Khaled Issa, a Palestinian from the West Bank village of Kharbatha Misbah, faces a problem that is unlikely to be resolved before a final resolution of the Mideast conflict occurs.
"My father didn't have the time to issue a birth certificate when I was born because he used to work as a laborer in Israel and came home only once every five months," he says. "My mother didn't know where to register me." Issa's case is rare. There are said to be five Palestinians in the West Bank and three in the Gaza Strip who have similar stories. But the numbers of those Palestinians born outside the territories -- mostly in Arab refugee camps -- and without Israeli-issued IDs is far higher and, according to Palestinian estimates, has reached 20,000.
Most came to visit relatives before the beginning of the intifada thorough special Israeli permits, which have now expired. The lack of papers is a serious obstacle to living in the occupied West Bank. Those without identification legally move from one town to another because papers are needed to cross Israeli checkpoints and barriers. They also have trouble registering their children.
"I was never able to get a permanent job because I never had an ID. I'm married and I don't know if I will have children. How can register them?" Issa asks. Issa, who was born in 1968, one year after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in Kharbatha Misbah, which is near Ramallah, still lives in the village. He says his father's attempts to get him a birth certificate or identity card failed because he never had the opportunity to get legal papers from the Israeli Interior Ministry. At the time, the entire Palestinian territories were administered by the Israeli civil administration. "We almost lost hope, but my father tried every possible way," he said. "He even went to someone who was said to be a collaborator with Israel and paid him .. to get a birth certificate."
He says the family paid $3,000 for the document, mainly for bribes, but the final document was found 15 years later to be a forgery when his father went to the civil administration's office in Ramallah to apply for an ID. "They told him the certificate was fake and ... destroyed it, and erased my name from my father's ID," he said.
Khaled's quest for an official identity did not end when he turned 16, the legal Israeli age to get the document. After the Oslo accords in 1993 and the subsequent formation of the Palestinian National Authority, he took his case to the PNA Interior Ministry.
"They told me to apply one more time for a birth certificate before asking for an ID and promised me they would do everything they can," he said. The final decision, however, lay with the Israeli Interior Ministry and he was still without a document. The start of the intifada in September 2000 hurt his chances even more.
"I've contacting the PNA interior ministry for the past three years and I hear the same thing every time: 'We are still in conflict with Israel and we can't do much for you now,'" he said.
Interior Ministry officials in Gaza told United Press International that the issuing of identity documents, including birth certificates, was still in Israel's hands.
"We are just employees," said Ahmed Abu Zaki, director of certificates in Gaza Interior office. "We work as mediators between Israel and the Palestinian residents."
Israel issues ID cards to Palestinians who were born and live in Gaza and the West Bank after 1967, he said.
"Once we reach a permanent peace solution with Israeli ... then we will be able to give documents to those who don't have ID cards," Abu Zaki said.
(Saud Abu Ramadan reported from Gaza and Lynda Wafi from Ramallah)
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